Date: Tue, 09 May 2000 22:41:45 -0700 From: Doug Barton <DougB@gorean.org> To: "Pedro F. Giffuni" <giffunip@asme.org> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: What exactly is an embedded system ? Message-ID: <3918F699.2761C5C@gorean.org> References: <39184EBF.A48E5023@asme.org>
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"Pedro F. Giffuni" wrote:
>
> I was undecided if this should go to questions or to hackers...
>
> I understand that FreeBSD is used a lot for embedded systems. I thought
> this would mean that the kernel, libc and some simple userland utilities
> should be portable for any of the "embedded targets" supported by gcc.
No, that is a different use of the same word. An embedded system is one
that is usually one that is "stand alone," used for a specific purpose
(sometimes more limited than a general system), or other similar uses.
Whistle's Interjet is an embedded system that uses freebsd.
Portability refers to code that can be used unchanged on many different
platforms. 100% portability is almost impossible for anything other than
very simple programs due to the divergence of various different
implementations of the same idea on different platforms. Utilities like
GNU autoconf attempt to resolve these issues by use of various #ifdef's
that handle different platforms, or even versions of the same platform.
It's not a perfect solution, but it works.
Hope this helps,
Doug
--
"Live free or die"
- State motto of my ancestral homeland, New Hampshire
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