Embedded ppc project

Embedded ppc project

[Pink X]

Can someone give me  a brief overview of how the boot process works for 
linuxppc on non-mac, non-open firmware hardware?

For instance, we're looking at a custom processor board for a project... 
basically it will have a CPU, a DiskOnChip of about 24MB, RAM and a 
drive.   Will it be hugely difficult to get linuxppc to boot out of the 
DoC (with a kernal and compress root ramdisk in the DiskOnChip)  Does the 
kernel make assumptions about there being certain types of hardware or a 
open firmware roms being there?  Will it be hugely difficult for (very 
experienced programmers who have worked on unix but not linux 
specifically) to get the kernal hacked to our hardware formfactor (not 
counting any I/O work, just booting in this environment.)

Any advice appreciated!  We may go with the RPCLite board, but we kinda 
need a 603e level of power.  (So any 603e @200+MHz embedded boards would 
be great to hear about, we've not found any yet.)

Thanks-

Jay

--
Worried about Y2K?   You should have bought a Macintosh.
(It also costs less, is twice as fast, and makes you more productive.)


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RE: Embedded ppc project

[Gary Thomas]

On 22-Jan-99 Pink X wrote:
> 
> 
> Can someone give me  a brief overview of how the boot process works for 
> linuxppc on non-mac, non-open firmware hardware?
> 
> For instance, we're looking at a custom processor board for a project... 
> basically it will have a CPU, a DiskOnChip of about 24MB, RAM and a 
> drive.   Will it be hugely difficult to get linuxppc to boot out of the 
> DoC (with a kernal and compress root ramdisk in the DiskOnChip)  Does the 
> kernel make assumptions about there being certain types of hardware or a 
> open firmware roms being there?  Will it be hugely difficult for (very 
> experienced programmers who have worked on unix but not linux 
> specifically) to get the kernal hacked to our hardware formfactor (not 
> counting any I/O work, just booting in this environment.)
> 
> Any advice appreciated!  We may go with the RPCLite board, but we kinda 
> need a 603e level of power.  (So any 603e @200+MHz embedded boards would 
> be great to hear about, we've not found any yet.)
> 

One place to look is:
  Cogent Computer Systems
  (508) 278-9400
  http://www.cogcomp.com/


------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary Thomas                              |
email: gdt@linuxppc.org                  | "Fine wine is a necessity of
   ... opinions expressed here are mine  |        life for me"
       and no one else would claim them! |
                                         |      Thomas Jefferson
------------------------------------------------------------------------



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Re: Embedded ppc project

[Matt Porter]

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Pink X wrote:

> Can someone give me  a brief overview of how the boot process works for 
> linuxppc on non-mac, non-open firmware hardware?
> 
> For instance, we're looking at a custom processor board for a project... 
> basically it will have a CPU, a DiskOnChip of about 24MB, RAM and a 
> drive.   Will it be hugely difficult to get linuxppc to boot out of the 
> DoC (with a kernal and compress root ramdisk in the DiskOnChip)  Does the 
> kernel make assumptions about there being certain types of hardware or a 
> open firmware roms being there?  Will it be hugely difficult for (very 
> experienced programmers who have worked on unix but not linux 
> specifically) to get the kernal hacked to our hardware formfactor (not 
> counting any I/O work, just booting in this environment.)
> 
> Any advice appreciated!  We may go with the RPCLite board, but we kinda 
> need a 603e level of power.  (So any 603e @200+MHz embedded boards would 
> be great to hear about, we've not found any yet.)

The Mot. 8240 has a 603 core at 100Mhz max which is at least closer to
what you want than the slow 860's...they probably will show up on MBX type
boards from Mot. soon.

--
Matt Porter
mmporter@home.com
Unix is a Linux-like operating system.


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Re: Embedded ppc project

[Troy Benjegerdes]

On Fri, 22 Jan 1999, Pink X wrote:

> 
> 
> Can someone give me  a brief overview of how the boot process works for 
> linuxppc on non-mac, non-open firmware hardware?

Most things with Motorola's PPCBug work pretty well.. The firmware loads a
boot loader, which then needs to uncompress the gziped kernel into low
memory.
 
> For instance, we're looking at a custom processor board for a project... 
> basically it will have a CPU, a DiskOnChip of about 24MB, RAM and a 
> drive.   Will it be hugely difficult to get linuxppc to boot out of the 
> DoC (with a kernal and compress root ramdisk in the DiskOnChip)  Does the 
> kernel make assumptions about there being certain types of hardware or a 
> open firmware roms being there?  Will it be hugely difficult for (very 
> experienced programmers who have worked on unix but not linux 
> specifically) to get the kernal hacked to our hardware formfactor (not 
> counting any I/O work, just booting in this environment.)
> 
> Any advice appreciated!  We may go with the RPCLite board, but we kinda 
> need a 603e level of power.  (So any 603e @200+MHz embedded boards would 
> be great to hear about, we've not found any yet.)

Have you looked at Motorola's MTX/MVME boards? You can get all the way up
to a dual 604e/300. Or are they too big (physically)?

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| Troy Benjegerdes    |       troy@microux.com     |    hozer@drgw.net   |
|    Unix is user friendly... You just have to be friendly to it first.  |
| This message composed with 100% free software.    http://www.gnu.org   |
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