x86 core

Hi everyone --

Just picked up a 101 last night and I'm doing a little poking around with it. My understanding is that Arduino sketches run on the ARC core while the x86 core runs a RTOS that is responsible for handling the USB connection. I would like to be able to use the x86 core to run my own code, however. If I want to do that, would I need to flash a custom x86 firmware over to the device? Where is DFU mode implemented if I screw something up? I don't want to end up with a brick because of a bug in my code :smiley:

I noticed there is what looks like a standard AVR ICSP header on the board along with a tiny 2x5 header up near the reset button. Can either of these be used with a programmer of some sort to reflash firmware?

Sorry if these questions are answered elsewhere. I went through around 12 pages of the forum last night, along with reading through a good chunk of the data sheet as well.

Thanks!
dennis

Hi Dennis,
you can hack the x86 core really safely :smiley: DFU is fully implemented in bootloader so the only chance to brick a board is if you want to modify if.
The ICSP header is only used to broke out SPI for shields, while the tiny 5x2 header is a jtag port compatible with any JTAG programmer (I personally use Flyswatter2 and it works great).
If you don't need a debugger and you are not going to hack the bootloader you can safely use the DFU upload procedure
Some interesting resources to get started:
https://github.com/01org?query=CODK
CODK codes are explained here