Embeded

Embeded

[Lada 'Ray' Lostak]

Hello there,

	maybe a bit wrong list, maybe not :) I have to crete embeded machine 
with custom HW. I am looking for some microcotroller, enough strong 
which is abble to run kernel. I am going to use clean kernel + asm 
stuffs to build system here. I am looking for CPU which have working 
kernel. Anyone have experimence with this ?

	Microcontroller in my eyes mean: it doesn't need any external chips at 
all. It includes everything. The less external chips it needs the 
better. Integrated ethernet (or usb) controller (with proper kernel 
drivers) is my dream :)

Thank you,

-- 
Best regards,
Lada 'Ray' Lostak
Unreal64 Develop group
http://www.unreal64.net
http://www.orcave.com


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the 1960s you needed the power of two C64s to get a rocket
to the moon. Now you need a machine which is a vast number
of times more powerful just to run the most popular GUI.

                Imagination is more important than knowledge...

Re: Embeded

[Stephen Pelc]

Date sent:      	Wed, 10 Aug 2005 07:59:47 +0200
From:           	Lada 'Ray' Lostak <ray@unreal64.net>
Subject:        	Embeded

> maybe a bit wrong list, maybe not :) I have to crete embeded
> machine with custom HW. I am looking for some microcotroller,
> enough strong which is abble to run kernel. I am going to use
> clean kernel + asm stuffs to build system here. I am looking
> for CPU which have working kernel. Anyone have experimence
> with this ? 
> 
> Microcontroller in my eyes mean: it doesn't need any external
> chips at all. It includes everything. The less external chips
> it needs the better. Integrated ethernet (or usb) controller
> (with proper kernel drivers) is my dream :) 

Have a look at Philips LP2138/48 or Atmel AT91SAM7S256. These 
are 60 or 30 MHz ARM cores with up 512k Flash and 32k RAM. 
Forget about Linux and do the O/S yourself. Then it will fit. We 
run a multi-threaded web server on a Philips LPC2106 with 1288k 
Flash and 64k RAM and an external Ethernet chip.

If you must run some flavour of Linux, then you will need 
external Flash and RAM, in which case you may find the Atmel 
AT91RM9200 to be what you need. Boards and Linux for this chip 
already exist.

Stephen

--
Stephen Pelc, stephen@mpeltd.demon.co.uk
MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd - More Real, Less Time
133 Hill Lane, Southampton SO15 5AF, England
tel: +44 23 80 631441, fax: +44 23 80 339691
web: http://www.mpeltd.demon.co.uk - free VFX Forth downloads

Re: Embeded

[Lada 'Ray' Lostak]

> Have a look at Philips LP2138/48 or Atmel AT91SAM7S256. These 
> are 60 or 30 MHz ARM cores with up 512k Flash and 32k RAM. 
> Forget about Linux and do the O/S yourself. Then it will fit. We 
> run a multi-threaded web server on a Philips LPC2106 with 1288k 
> Flash and 64k RAM and an external Ethernet chip.
Thank you, I didn't know Philips do uC too :) I know Atmel one's and 
they seems prety OK. What TCP/IP stack you are using ? There exists 
sever GPL'ed, but I have no experimence with them.

The only reason why I wanted to run linux is to use their eth drivers & 
tcp/ip stack. Nothing more.

R.

Re: Embeded

[Stephen Pelc]

> Thank you, I didn't know Philips do uC too :) I know Atmel one's
> and they seems prety OK. What TCP/IP stack you are using ? There
> exists sever GPL'ed, but I have no experimence with them.
> 
> The only reason why I wanted to run linux is to use their eth
> drivers & tcp/ip stack. Nothing more.

We use our own, see
  www.mpeforth.com/powernet.htm

If you are using external Ethernet chips such as the SMSC 91Cxxx 
series, RealTek 8019AS (and other NE2000 clones) or Asix 88976, 
the drivers are pretty simple and there are plenty of code 
examples on the net. Once you know what you are doing, about 200 
lines of code.

The Ethernet controllers integrated into most CPUs tend to 
consist of a MAC unit with small buffers and a DMA engine. You 
have to manage it all yourself. They can require 1000+ lines of 
code.

What to do depends on the hardware volume and how much time you 
have.

Stephen

--
Stephen Pelc, stephen@mpeltd.demon.co.uk
MicroProcessor Engineering Ltd - More Real, Less Time
133 Hill Lane, Southampton SO15 5AF, England
tel: +44 23 80 631441, fax: +44 23 80 339691
web: http://www.mpeltd.demon.co.uk - free VFX Forth downloads