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Date:      Fri, 06 Jul 2001 01:44:26 -0600
From:      Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com>
To:        tlambert2@mindspring.com
Cc:        Bsdguru@aol.com, nate@yogotech.com, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Status of encryption hardware support in FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <3B456C5A.8FDC8ED6@softweyr.com>
References:  <12d.dc435a.28724adf@aol.com> <3B41BA57.48F3788A@mindspring.com>

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Terry Lambert wrote:
> 
> I think you'll find that Wes Peters has worked on a number
> of them as well (one of his is now called "Intel InBusiness"
> servers).

My Internet Station ran VxWorks because we didn't have enough CPU
budget for anything else, and because we were fighting political
wars over a lot of issues back then.  Later members of the InBusiness
line, produced to my great astonishment, did use FreeBSD, but not the
one that needed it the most -- the email server.

> Most of us were extremely pissed off when /dev/random went
> in and made 386 and 486 class hardware crawl on its knees,
> since embedded systems have different requirements for
> things like moving parts, heat dissipation, etc., than
> general purpose computers posing as embedded systems.

Trying to run any sort of SSL on a 486-class processor now is a losing
game, wiping out two entire generations of processors.  PCs are very
expensive for such inexpensive computers.

Now I'm working on a design that is powered by a 12-volt deep cycle 
battery and keep ending up with RTEMS or uClinux on the device because 
*BSD doesn't really do low-power (as in current draw) hardware anymore.  
I can base this project on an Atmel AT91 (ARM THUMB) or Motorola ColdFire 
cpu, load a pretty much standard uClinux or RTEMS build on it, and still 
be able to talk on the VHF, or I can run it on BSD and sell generators to 
go with it.

<Sigh>

-- 
            "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"

Wes Peters                                                         Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com                                           http://softweyr.com/

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