From owner-freebsd-small@FreeBSD.ORG Sun May 14 19:17:31 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3578F16A41F; Sun, 14 May 2006 19:17:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from gaia.nimnet.asn.au (nimbin.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.45.143]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D42FD43D58; Sun, 14 May 2006 19:17:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Received: from localhost (smithi@localhost) by gaia.nimnet.asn.au (8.8.8/8.8.8R1.4) with SMTP id FAA13048; Mon, 15 May 2006 05:17:22 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from smithi@nimnet.asn.au) Date: Mon, 15 May 2006 05:17:21 +1000 (EST) From: Ian Smith To: gnn@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Embedded FreeBSD Presentation... X-BeenThere: freebsd-small@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Dedicated and Embedded Systems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 14 May 2006 19:17:32 -0000 On Sun, 14 May 2006 gnn@freebsd.org wrote: > At Sun, 14 May 2006 09:16:48 +0200, > Eduardo wrote: > > Is this really possible:? Sorry for be a bit unoptimist, but in the > > embeded space the o.s.must follow some rules that freebsd (nor > > linux, *bsd, windows, etc..) can't: > > > > - size: The o.s. must be minimal. Freebsd kernel, now, is a bit huge. > > - realtime: The o.s. must do some tasks at fixed times, this tasks > > can't wait for nothing. > > > > The size one can be fixed, but the realtime not. It needs a new > > scheleude, irq manager,...; so a great kernel rework. I've been subscribed to realtime@ (& small@) forever just for interest, and scarcely a peep on the former .. yes it would be great to see that sort of work done. Meanwhile uPs are getting bigger at such a rate that at least the size issue has become less critical - ie, doable. And getting fast enough that kHz slicing and rtprio will do for lots of applications that aren't less than millisecond critical .. > Perhaps you mis-understand the thrust of this drive, in that we are > not talking about turning FreeBSD into an RTOS, at least not in the > short term, but about making it more amenable to embedded. Saw your slides and think it's a terrific project, for what a fairly clueless, mostly broke yet still fascinated lurker's view is worth :) > There is much to do but it will be a gradual process. Size and > configuration are the first things to address. > > > Also, you forget the PowerPC chips. They are in a lot of embedded > > devices and now freebsd has support for them (6.x). > > We did not forget them but amongst those who have shown interest in > this project ARM and MIPS are the clear leaders. If we find people > who wish to address the PowerPC chips as well, all the better. One > other important component in this work is focus. We cannot be all > things to all people, at least not at the outset, so two different > processors and two or three reference boards for each are where we > plan to start. These are still Big Iron to me; I'm slowly kitting up to play with a little twin-cpu ATtiny45 board in mostly assembler using avr-tools and such, which I know isn't related to what's going on in here at all, but I'll be lapping it up anyway .. Best o'luck, Ian