From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Thu May 25 20:07:36 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: current@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 95A3F16C030; Thu, 25 May 2006 20:07:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from harmony.bsdimp.com (vc4-2-0-87.dsl.netrack.net [199.45.160.85]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2BC3143D46; Thu, 25 May 2006 20:07:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Received: from localhost (localhost.village.org [IPv6:::1] (may be forged)) by harmony.bsdimp.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k4PK5iQb036745; Thu, 25 May 2006 14:05:45 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from imp@bsdimp.com) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 14:05:44 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <20060525.140544.1474621433.imp@bsdimp.com> To: jim@netgate.com From: "M. Warner Losh" In-Reply-To: <472414CE-94E8-4C8A-9586-DCA9E02A53C3@netgate.com> References: <2538.1148556253@critter.freebsd.dk> <472414CE-94E8-4C8A-9586-DCA9E02A53C3@netgate.com> X-Mailer: Mew version 4.2 on Emacs 21.3 / Mule 5.0 (SAKAKI) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: phk@phk.freebsd.dk, small@freebsd.org, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD's embedded agenda X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 20:07:44 -0000 In message: <472414CE-94E8-4C8A-9586-DCA9E02A53C3@netgate.com> Jim Thompson writes: : : On May 25, 2006, at 1:24 AM, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote: : : > Platforms : > --------- : > : > I386 goes without saying. : > : > AMD64 may have an embedded future in the high end segment, keeping : > it "unbloated" is a concern. : > : > ARM is going great according to Jean-Mark and Warner, and we are : > looking for a cheap (< $200) reference platform to point people at. : : These are available. Someone else was asking (privately) for sub- : $100, which is (much) more difficult. There's many sub $100 MIPS boards available that have enough resourses, barely, for a minimal system to boot/run on. : > NanoBSD caters only to the "run read-only from flash" area, call : > it if you will the "soekris" area. I need to investigate if it : > makes sense to use the FreeSBIE framework to build nanobsd images. : : All soekris boards have CF, which looks, for all the world like an : IDE drive. : : "real" flash is quite different. Soekris (and the PC Engines : boards) are a proper subset of i386, and : should be treated as such. Yes. Running off a real flash is much more difficult... : > What can you do ? : > : > If you work with embedded FreeBSD, I think the best you can do is to : > chime in to small@freebsd.org, tell us what you are doing (as far as : > company policy will allow you), and if you have any ideas, wishes, : > problems, let us hear about them. : : I'm looking for the time to get FreeBSD running on the Gateworks : Xscale (arm) boards. These are interesting to me for a couple : reasons, but the : most important is that most of the boards come with a CF socket, : which means not having to deal with smaller flash sizes, and/or : dealing with a FFS : at the FreeBSD level (for now). Those would be a good level to start from. Subsetting is a pain during development, but once developed, it shouldn't be too hard to shrink things down. Doing it generally might be an issue... Warner