Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:57:12 -1000 From: Jim Thompson <jim@netgate.com> To: "Chad R. Larson" <chad@DCFinc.com> Cc: small@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD's embedded agenda Message-ID: <50372FCA-0668-476F-8FD5-0F5EAE167891@netgate.com> In-Reply-To: <20060530223511.GA83083@freebie.dcfinc.com> References: <447B6870.8020704@nortel.com> <HCEPKPMCAJLDGJIBCLGHAELDFGAA.james@wgold.demon.co.uk> <20060530223511.GA83083@freebie.dcfinc.com>
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On May 30, 2006, at 12:35 PM, Chad R. Larson wrote: > On Tue, May 30, 2006 at 06:30:45AM +0100, James Mansion wrote: >> The scenario would seem to be: >> - very small form factor and cost per unit >> - so no physical spinning disk >> - *and* you need a lot of updates >> >> Its the last of these that bears scrutiny. > > I've been using m0n0BSD on Soekris hardware. The "disk" is a CF > card, and booting consists of creating a RAM drive and then > populating it from the CF. The CF stays mounted R/O unless some > persistant information (like, configuration) needs to be saved, at > which time it is remounted R/W until the update is completed and > then put back to R/O. Systems with soldered on flash could hold the 'configuration' in a small number of flash sectors, with a checksum. If the checksum doesn't match, then a 'default' configuration could be used (stored in the RO part of the flash). m0n0 and pfsense largely point the way here, though PHP is a big footprint for a system with minimal flash. > This satisfies the "no moving parts" and small form factor issues. > > It seems to me that if the VM could/would be willing to do its > demand paging off the CF, so RAM would only have to hold dirty pages > that we'd hit the sweet spot for embedded systems of small to medium > production runs. Especially since CF is now available in gigabyte > sizes. Not all embedded projects use boards that can use CF.
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