From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Steve Graegert Subject: Re: Distinction Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 21:05:53 +0200 Message-ID: <6a00c8d50509121205642d9ca7@mail.gmail.com> References: <1126528922.3338.45.camel@kaushal> Reply-To: graegerts@gmail.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Return-path: In-Reply-To: <1126528922.3338.45.camel@kaushal> Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-c-programming-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: kaushal@rocsys.com Cc: linux-c-programming@vger.kernel.org On 9/12/05, kaushal wrote: > hello list, > Iam unable to find the exact differences between the terms: > 1.architecture > 2.Platform In case of hardware, the HAL itself provides a platform for applications to run on a given architecture. The HAL specifies/describes/is the platform. > 3.Variant Variants are different types of hardware devices of the same family. For example, microcontroller and embedded devices of the same family are often of different variant with different, sometimes unique, bus or memory systems, addressing schemes and the like. In these cases, software build for one variant often needs to be rebuild for the other. Software running such often devices lack an abstraction layer that eases portability. An example is Infineon's C166 microcontroller family with the variants C167CS (supporting flash) and ST10F269 (supporting RAM) being almost completely incompatible to each other on the binary level. Nevertheless, they are compatible on the hardware level and are based on the same fundamental design. > 4.Core AFAIK a core is the smallest piece of hardware (call it a component) that can be incorporated into a larger component by adding more value, either by additional hardware or extensible firmware. Sometimes a core is nothing more than a couple of gates allowing external sensors being attached. Others are quite complex and designed for special applications, such as DSPs, and are driven by special oscillators. Hope this helps a bit. Regards \Steve -- Steve Graegert Software Consultancy {C/C++ && Java && .NET} Mobile: +49 (176) 21248869 Office: +49 (9131) 7126409