A quick flashback to 2002.
Apple had just launched the iPod, which already allowed you to listen to music with 5 GB of storage. To get our name out there, we decided to develop our own MP3 player — with a 20 GB hard drive. Four times more storage than the iPod, back in 2002.
We did have a hard drive inside, but the development tools at the time were far more rudimentary. And since we didn't have much in the way of resources, we developed the entire electronics with the absolute minimum. We used a few LEDs to debug the entire hard drive — it had its own level of complexity, which raises a smile today, but brings back some great memories.
We produced a very small series — around ten units, for people we knew. But that player still works, more than 20 years later.
Xavier Greppin