Hello all!

I am relatively new to Pics.  I am thinking of undertaking a little
(huge to a novice !:) project.  I would like to make a Mp3 player for
the car. I was wondering if I might pic the lists brains on a few
subjects.  Here are some of the areas I need help in:

1)Will LINUX run on a pic?  If so , which one?  ANd of course how!

Why would you want to?  You don't have to run llinux on something to make it decode MP3 streams....

2)Is there an easy way to interface with an IDE drive?  Any one have a
clue where I could find out how to do this?  I have found lots of info
on just what an IDE/ATA device is, just not how to use it!  Any help on
the technicalities would be great!

Ongoing discussion on this, and even a competition with a notebook hard drive up for grabs from a piclist member if you write and publish the code.

3)Does anyone know if there is an "easy"(pic related) way to decode and
playback an mp3?  I have looked in the archives but keep getting a
search result of >600 hits!

Use a dedicated hardware decoder such as the Micronas MAS3057D.  You just have to supply an MP3 encoded bitstream to this custom DSP chip, it does the rest.

Again any help anyone has would be great.  I am new but I like to think
I learn quickly!  :)

Thanks,
Allen

Check out http://www.mp3ar.com  It has pretty much everything you need.  Be warned though, that this is not a trivial project suitable for an absolute beginner.

Regards

Mike Rigby-Jones