From owner-freebsd-embedded@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Dec  4 22:39:04 2008
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-embedded@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: embedded@freebsd.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34])
	by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92B54106564A
	for <embedded@freebsd.org>; Thu,  4 Dec 2008 22:39:04 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com)
Received: from harmony.bsdimp.com (bsdimp.com [199.45.160.85])
	by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 51BCC8FC1B
	for <embedded@freebsd.org>; Thu,  4 Dec 2008 22:39:04 +0000 (UTC)
	(envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com)
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by harmony.bsdimp.com (8.14.2/8.14.1) with ESMTP id mB4MbIpN096864
	for <embedded@freebsd.org>; Thu, 4 Dec 2008 15:37:18 -0700 (MST)
	(envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com)
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:37:26 -0700 (MST)
Message-Id: <20081204.153726.-1548257878.imp@bsdimp.com>
To: embedded@freebsd.org
From: "M. Warner Losh" <imp@bsdimp.com>
X-Mailer: Mew version 5.2 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Cc: 
Subject: Looking to formalize board support in embedded platforms.
X-BeenThere: freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5
Precedence: list
List-Id: Dedicated and Embedded Systems <freebsd-embedded.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-embedded>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-embedded-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-embedded>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-embedded@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-embedded-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-embedded>, 
	<mailto:freebsd-embedded-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:39:04 -0000

I've spent a little bit of time implementing the start of board files
for the arm port. The initial push has been for the at91 subport only,
and many improvements could be made to this. I've written up my
initial thoughts on this on the FreeBSD wiki
http://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSDArmBoards/. It could use much
improvement, I'm sure.

One idea that hasn't been reflected there yet, was shown to me by Sam
Laffler who suggested using linker sets to allow boards to 'probe',
'init' and other standardized functions. This is an interesting idea
and I plan on working on adding it to the above links when Sam has
results to share.

I'd also like to expand the above wiki page to be a 'best practices'
guide for all architectures where there's great diversity of
boards/cpus/etc (eg, not the homogeneous env that x86 provides).

I'm also soliciting comments on the above boards in addition to the
above. Send them to me, or post them here.