Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 05:17:14 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> To: abc@alaska.net (abc) Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: embed Message-ID: <199612191017.FAA24792@hda.hda.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95.961219070900.340A-100000@localhost> from abc at "Dec 19, 96 07:13:48 am"
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> > does anyone know of anything about "embedded" (romed) UNIXs ? > > i saw Linux had a project - but nothing working (ELKS) ... > > is FreeBSD ROMable ? anyone ever try it ? > > or is the idea ridiculous? No > or any other advice on a portable ROMable standard ? Visit QNX.com for a product from an established company (not a sales pitch - a pointer). > 386 CPU ok - but NO drives (moving parts) ... > > no sales pitches please! > > i also hear that writing device drivers can be a real pain in the butt for > UNIX (A2D cards, etc) ? any comments ? > For a stand-alone system you'll need a lot of ROM (guess 2 MB) and you'll need memory for a memory file system. As an unprofesional guess I'll say a 2MB compressed boot ROM and 8MB RAM (4MB memory 4MB MFS) would work for many applications. The right thing to do is to prototype with a boot floppy and see what the real footprint is. Something that will have a lot of applicability is a small system that boots off a network with network updateable FLASH and optional full boot FLASH. I realize this isn't what you have in mind, but I think we should stake out the VAX-11/750 configuration (4MB RAM, 128 MB NV storage, good network support) and aggressively ride the constant-performance curve. What will that cost in two years?. Those final two are my working thoughts about minimal systems: network boot FLASH and "VAX-11/750" (I think of it as .750 FreeBSD). Writing device drivers for A2D cards etc needn't be a pain if you have the docs and we modularize the existing ones a bit more. For the type of system you have in mind I doubt there is much of a driver. -- Peter Dufault (dufault@hda.com) Real-Time Machine Control and Simulation HD Associates, Inc. Voice: 508 433 6936
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