Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 27 Sep 2012 18:26:06 +0200 (CEST)
From:      Oliver Fromme <olli@lurza.secnetix.de>
To:        freebsd-embedded@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Looking for hardware advice
Message-ID:  <201209271626.q8RGQ6nS011607@grabthar.secnetix.de>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi,

I'm sorry, this is probably off-topic, but I couldn't find
much useful information on the web.

I'm looking for a small board that's well supported by
FreeBSD (head or stable/9).

It should ...

 - ... be as small as possible (physical size).
 - ... be available to the public without having to order
   a crate of 1000.  I need only one, maybe two.
 - ... work out of the box with head or stable/9, without
   requiring a soldering iron, without having to patch
   firmware with a hex editor and similar adventures.  :-)
 - ... run from a single power line, preferably 12V DC or
   something like that, with as low power consumption as
   possible.  I wouldn't mind if it could run from a bunch
   of batteries either.
 - ... Support USB and some kind of wireless communication,
   preferably Bluetooth (either built-in or via a USB-to-
   Bluetooth adapter).
 - ... boot from flash (SD card, CF card or USB stick).
 - ... have a bunch of GPIO pins to play with.  Actually I
   would like to port an old piece of software that used
   the good old parallel port (in bit-bang mode), so I need
   at least 12 or 13 I/O pins.  Alternatively I could use a
   USB parallel port adapter, but I'm not sure if those
   support bit-bang mode.  (And such an adapter would add
   to the overall size, so I'd like to avoid that.)

I do NOT need ethernet, VGA, audio, and so on.  In fact
I'll probably compile a kernel without networking support.
Performance is not an issue, I don't intend to run number
crunching stuff or folding@home.  ;-)  RAM should be
sufficient to boot a stripped-down kernel with the modules
and software that I need (Bluetooth stuff, a shell, some
small programs).

Something like the Raspberry Pi would be cool (except that
the Pi has many features that I don't need, and it's not
supported by FreeBSD as of today).

Any advice will be appreciated!

Best regards
   Oliver


-- 
Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M.
Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606,  Geschäftsfuehrung:
secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün-
chen, HRB 125758,  Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart

FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr:  http://www.secnetix.de/bsd

With Perl you can manipulate text, interact with programs, talk over
networks, drive Web pages, perform arbitrary precision arithmetic,
and write programs that look like Snoopy swearing.



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?201209271626.q8RGQ6nS011607>