Embedded FreeBSD Presentation...

[Ian Smith]

On Sun, 14 May 2006 gnn at freebsd.org wrote:

 > At Sun, 14 May 2006 09:16:48 +0200,
 > Eduardo wrote:
 > > Is this really possible:? Sorry for be a bit unoptimist, but in the
 > > embeded space the o.s.must follow some rules that freebsd (nor
 > > linux, *bsd, windows, etc..) can't:
 > > 
 > > - size: The o.s. must be minimal. Freebsd kernel, now, is a bit huge.
 > > - realtime: The o.s. must do some tasks at fixed times, this tasks 
 > > can't wait for nothing.
 > > 
 > > The size one can be fixed, but the realtime not. It needs a new 
 > > scheleude, irq manager,...; so a great kernel rework.

I've been subscribed to realtime@ (& small@) forever just for interest,
and scarcely a peep on the former .. yes it would be great to see that
sort of work done.  Meanwhile uPs are getting bigger at such a rate that
at least the size issue has become less critical - ie, doable.

And getting fast enough that kHz slicing and rtprio will do for lots of
applications that aren't less than millisecond critical ..

 > Perhaps you mis-understand the thrust of this drive, in that we are
 > not talking about turning FreeBSD into an RTOS, at least not in the
 > short term, but about making it more amenable to embedded.

Saw your slides and think it's a terrific project, for what a fairly
clueless, mostly broke yet still fascinated lurker's view is worth :)

 > There is much to do but it will be a gradual process.  Size and
 > configuration are the first things to address.
 > 
 > > Also, you forget the PowerPC chips. They are in a lot of embedded 
 > > devices and now freebsd has support for them (6.x).
 > 
 > We did not forget them but amongst those who have shown interest in
 > this project ARM and MIPS are the clear leaders.  If we find people
 > who wish to address the PowerPC chips as well, all the better.  One
 > other important component in this work is focus.  We cannot be all
 > things to all people, at least not at the outset, so two different
 > processors and two or three reference boards for each are where we
 > plan to start.

These are still Big Iron to me; I'm slowly kitting up to play with a
little twin-cpu ATtiny45 board in mostly assembler using avr-tools and
such, which I know isn't related to what's going on in here at all, but
I'll be lapping it up anyway ..

Best o'luck,

Ian