Date: 16 May 2006 17:36:10 -0000 From: Larry Baird <lab@gta.com> To: freebsd-small@freebsd.org Cc: Robert Krten <root@parse.com> Subject: Re: Smallest/fastest x86 6.0 Message-ID: <20060516173610.59276.qmail@gta.com> In-Reply-To: <200605161629.k4GGTPfN065519@amd64.ott.parse.com>
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In article <200605161629.k4GGTPfN065519@amd64.ott.parse.com> you wrote: > Can anyone give me a ballpark idea on what size the smallest > image would be, and how fast it could boot, for a 6.0 (or 6.1) > bare bones x86 kernel with a serial driver, filesystem (suitable > for a 32MB flash device; even a DOS filesystem is fine) and > enough guts to load a "hello world"-sized C program, on a 500 > MHz PIII class of machine? I'm hoping for something along the > lines of 2-4MB and <10s ... > > I know it's kind of a vague question, but I'm trying to > get a handle on just how "embeddable" FreeBSD is. PHK gave > a talk at BSDCan 2006 last weekend, and I believe the number > he guessed at was around 9MB but that was using nanoBSD; he > then went on to say that picoBSD would be the way to go, but > that perhaps there needed to be some more development on that > front... > > Comments? I have created very small embedded FreeBSD using as small as 1.6MB. For this I replaced init with my own init and basically kernel, new init and a few services. I agree with PKH that picoBSD is a good place to start. As far as time to boot, the limiting factor is often the BIOS. Just checked on an embedded development box I have and saw a boot time of ten seconds after BIOS finished. This box is really just a standard PC with a standard BIOS. The BIOS takes about 15 seconds to complete. On "real embedded" hardware I am seeing a BIOS time of about 4 seconds. Hope this helps. Larry -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Larry Baird | http://www.gta.com Global Technology Associates, Inc. | Orlando, FL Email: lab@gta.com | TEL 407-380-0220, FAX 407-380-6080
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