Hello everyone,
Most of you must be aware of the Indian tech startup Notion Ink, which has released its much-awaited nVIDIA Tegra 2 based tablet, Adam, which runs on Android 2.2. You must also be aware that Google has not released the source code of Honeycomb (Android 3.0), claiming that much work needs to be done, but some large hardware manufacturers like Motorola, Acer, Asus etc. already have access, and have released their Honeycomb tablets based on nVIDIA Tegra 2 to a great public reception.
The Adam tablet is technically as capable as the rest of the Tegra 2 devices, but it suffers from lack of access to the latest operating system. On the other hand, Notion Ink has been supportive of efforts by hackers to improve upon the device software, which has given us various alternative ROMs, root access, etc.
As of now, the community of hackers organised around the forum at http://tabletroms.com is focusing its effort on porting Honeycomb to the Adam and other 'left out' tablets. This work is being done by tweaking the system dumps obtained out of the existing Honeycomb tablets, and so far, there has been substantial progress in getting it to run on the Adam. ( http://tabletroms.com/forums/showthread.php?356-Honeycomb-on-the-Adam-%28Upd... )
As you may read on the thread above, there is still lots of work to be done to have a stable system, and much of this concerns the kernel. ( http://tabletroms.com/forums/showthread.php?596-WIP-Honeycomb-kernel-(nv-teg... )
The community is running short of experienced hands at kernel development, and would like to solicit your help in the kernel development effort. If you are an experienced kernel developer with interest in Android or embedded systems, you could be an ideal candidate. In fact, the community has chipped in to create a bounty for a fully working instance of Honeycomb, with amounts set aside for different aspects of the OS. (http://tabletroms.com/forums/content.php?2-Honeycomb-ROM-Contest) (http://tabletroms.com/forums/content.php?4-Stabilize-the-HC-Rom)
We know that the chief motivators for open source contributors are knowledge, community building and recognition, not money. However, it always helps to show our gratitude for your contribution, apart from actually using it. Many members have also demonstrated good spirit by sending donations to student developers and others that have been helping maintain the forum and development out of their own pockets.
If any of you feel that the likely end results are worth the effort, please feel free to visit the forum or IRC at http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23%23adamroot&uio=d4
Best regards,
Nishit
ps: If you are interested in the device itself, some owners are willing to sell their tablets as they have access to other alternative models.