HW platform

HW platform

[Joakim Tjernlund]

Hi all

We are planning the next generation of our product and I want
to use Linux for the control board(this is an embedded system)
and I wondering what HW platform to use. We need a file
system(on flash) and IP/OSPF mainly from Linux.
Ther will be alot of (internal) communication with the other boards(25 of
them)
We have earlier used m68360 and therefore I am thinking a
PowerPC 860 CPU would serve us well in that respect.

I need something that does take a lot of effort to get Linux running on.
It would be great if there we could buy CPU design that is Linux prepared.

Any ideas ? I open for all suggestions

 Regards
                   Joakim




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Re: HW platform

[Alexander Larsson]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:

> Hi all
> 
> We are planning the next generation of our product and I want
> to use Linux for the control board(this is an embedded system)
> and I wondering what HW platform to use. We need a file
> system(on flash) and IP/OSPF mainly from Linux.
> Ther will be alot of (internal) communication with the other boards(25 of
> them)
> We have earlier used m68360 and therefore I am thinking a
> PowerPC 860 CPU would serve us well in that respect.
> 
> I need something that does take a lot of effort to get Linux running on.
> It would be great if there we could buy CPU design that is Linux prepared.

 I suppose you mean doesn't take a lot of effort...
 
> Any ideas ? I open for all suggestions

The PPC 860 series is well supported by Linux. Several of our customers
use it and are satisfied. 

/ Alex




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Re: HW platform

[Joakim Tjernlund]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander Larsson" <alex@cendio.se>
To: "Joakim Tjernlund" <tjernlund@telia.com>
Cc: <mtd@infradead.org>
Sent: den 17 juni 2000 12:20
Subject: Re: HW platform


> On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
>
> > Hi all
> >
> > We are planning the next generation of our product and I want
> > to use Linux for the control board(this is an embedded system)
> > and I wondering what HW platform to use. We need a file
> > system(on flash) and IP/OSPF mainly from Linux.
> > Ther will be alot of (internal) communication with the other boards(25
of
> > them)
> > We have earlier used m68360 and therefore I am thinking a
> > PowerPC 860 CPU would serve us well in that respect.
> >
> > I need something that does take a lot of effort to get Linux running on.
> > It would be great if there we could buy CPU design that is Linux
prepared.
>
>  I suppose you mean doesn't take a lot of effort...

yeah :-)

>
> > Any ideas ? I open for all suggestions
>
> The PPC 860 series is well supported by Linux. Several of our customers
> use it and are satisfied.

Good to hear! What type of HW do they use(besides the CPU). Is
is possible to run Linux on 'bare' HW(no BIOS, or ROM monitor)?
Is there some typical HW configuration which will run Linux without
to much tweaking of Linux?  Which distro(we are aming for Linux 2.2) ?

I was hoping to buy the HW design and fit it in on our control board.
Is there such a beast available?
>
> / Alex
>
>




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Re: HW platform

[Alexander Larsson]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:

> > The PPC 860 series is well supported by Linux. Several of our customers
> > use it and are satisfied.
> 
> Good to hear! What type of HW do they use(besides the CPU). Is
> is possible to run Linux on 'bare' HW(no BIOS, or ROM monitor)?
> Is there some typical HW configuration which will run Linux without
> to much tweaking of Linux?  Which distro(we are aming for Linux 2.2) ?

Basically you need a cpu, memory, flash and some external i/o circuits
depending on what i/o you need to use (ethernet transcievers etc). You can
pretty easily write you own boot code (I've done it). Just set up the
memory and stuff, then jump to the linux kernel image stored in flash.
 
> I was hoping to buy the HW design and fit it in on our control board.
> Is there such a beast available?

There are some development boards availible, but I don't know much about
them. I've worked mainly with custom boards.

/ Alex





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Re: HW platform

[Joakim Tjernlund]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alexander Larsson" <alex@cendio.se>
To: "Joakim Tjernlund" <tjernlund@telia.com>
Cc: <mtd@infradead.org>
Sent: den 17 juni 2000 15:24
Subject: Re: HW platform


> On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
>
> > > The PPC 860 series is well supported by Linux. Several of our
customers
> > > use it and are satisfied.
> >
> > Good to hear! What type of HW do they use(besides the CPU). Is
> > is possible to run Linux on 'bare' HW(no BIOS, or ROM monitor)?
> > Is there some typical HW configuration which will run Linux without
> > to much tweaking of Linux?  Which distro(we are aming for Linux 2.2) ?
>
> Basically you need a cpu, memory, flash and some external i/o circuits
> depending on what i/o you need to use (ethernet transcievers etc). You can
> pretty easily write you own boot code (I've done it). Just set up the
> memory and stuff, then jump to the linux kernel image stored in flash.

Well, that sounds pretty simple(pretty much the same I do today with
Enea OSE Delta kernel). But we also need to upgrade the kernel(download
new kernel, store in FS and reboot to new kernel)
I have read about GRUB and DOC and that sounds promising. Will that
work on custom board with PPC and plain Flash memory(with minor adaptions)?

What about device drivers for PPC 860?

 >
> > I was hoping to buy the HW design and fit it in on our control board.
> > Is there such a beast available?
>
> There are some development boards availible, but I don't know much about
> them. I've worked mainly with custom boards.

Well, a development board will do to get started but we need fit
the CPU design on our own board in the end.

    Jocke
>
> / Alex
>
>
>




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Re: HW platform

[Alexander Larsson]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
> Well, that sounds pretty simple(pretty much the same I do today with
> Enea OSE Delta kernel). But we also need to upgrade the kernel(download
> new kernel, store in FS and reboot to new kernel)
> I have read about GRUB and DOC and that sounds promising. Will that
> work on custom board with PPC and plain Flash memory(with minor adaptions)?

Well. If you have plain flash memory the best way is to store the kernel
image in a dedicated place in the flash. Then just let the boot code jump
to it.

Then you can reflash the kernel image when you need to upgrade the kernel.
That can be done using i.e. the MTD char device.

> What about device drivers for PPC 860?

What about them? Most of the build in devices in the 860 (the
communication controller stuff) already has drivers. You will need to
write flash (mtd) drivers (the recent CFI stuff might work though).
 
/ Alex



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Re: HW platform

[Joakim Tjernlund]

> On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Joakim Tjernlund wrote:
> > Well, that sounds pretty simple(pretty much the same I do today with
> > Enea OSE Delta kernel). But we also need to upgrade the kernel(download
> > new kernel, store in FS and reboot to new kernel)
> > I have read about GRUB and DOC and that sounds promising. Will that
> > work on custom board with PPC and plain Flash memory(with minor
adaptions)?
>
> Well. If you have plain flash memory the best way is to store the kernel
> image in a dedicated place in the flash. Then just let the boot code jump
> to it.
>
> Then you can reflash the kernel image when you need to upgrade the kernel.
> That can be done using i.e. the MTD char device.

Great! should be fairly easy to make the boot code to select
between 2 different images.

>
> > What about device drivers for PPC 860?
>
> What about them? Most of the build in devices in the 860 (the
> communication controller stuff) already has drivers. You will need to
> write flash (mtd) drivers (the recent CFI stuff might work though).

Good! I am manily intressted in ethernet, UART and HDLC drivers
(plus flash, but I expect to write that myself)

Do you know good distro start with or should I just take
the latest kernel release?

Many thanks for your patience and help!

      Jocke
>
> / Alex
>




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Re: HW platform

[David Woodhouse]

On Sat, 17 Jun 2000, Alexander Larsson wrote:

> What about them? Most of the build in devices in the 860 (the
> communication controller stuff) already has drivers. You will need to
> write flash (mtd) drivers (the recent CFI stuff might work though).

CFI stuff ought to work fine if you flash is capable of command set #0001
- "Intel/Sharp Extended". Actually my code only uses the basic commands,
so if you change the lookup it should work on "Intel/Sharp
Standard" (0003? I'm at home with no specs ATM).

All you need to do is point the CFI code at the region where the flash is
mapped in memory - see include/linux/mtd/map.h and kernel/nora.c

Probably, all you'll have to do is change the WINDOW_ADDR and possibly
WINDOW_SIZE definitions at the top of nora.c

I may give it a more sensible name at some point in the future :)

The only other thing to be aware of is that I don't believe JFFS has
actually been tested on BE machines - although I don't really expect it to
turn up any problems.

I'll be fixing up the Intel command set code so that it doesn't busy-wait
for erases at some point in the near future - probably after I get back to
the UK next Thursday.

-- 
dwmw2




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