From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S934586AbXGTH7T (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:59:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1760368AbXGTH7M (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:59:12 -0400 Received: from wp050.webpack.hosteurope.de ([80.237.132.57]:59658 "EHLO wp050.webpack.hosteurope.de" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1758641AbXGTH7L (ORCPT ); Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:59:11 -0400 X-Greylist: delayed 1896 seconds by postgrey-1.27 at vger.kernel.org; Fri, 20 Jul 2007 03:59:11 EDT Date: Fri, 20 Jul 2007 09:27:30 +0200 From: Uwe Hermann To: Matt Mackall Cc: Andi Kleen , "H. Peter Anvin" , Jonathan Campbell , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Patches for REALLY TINY 386 kernels Message-ID: <20070720072730.GN3700@greenwood> References: <469A8AED.7070207@nerdgrounds.com> <469E3806.4030804@zytor.com> <20070718194137.GG11166@waste.org> <20070718201043.GF3898@one.firstfloor.org> <20070718204102.GM11115@waste.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="OROCMA9jn6tkzFBc" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20070718204102.GM11115@waste.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.16 (2007-06-11) X-bounce-key: webpack.hosteurope.de;uwe@hermann-uwe.de;1184918351;a97aed78; Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org --OROCMA9jn6tkzFBc Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 03:41:02PM -0500, Matt Mackall wrote: > On Wed, Jul 18, 2007 at 10:10:43PM +0200, Andi Kleen wrote: > >=20 > > I was waiting for someone to make that "point" ... > >=20 > > >=20 > > > Every byte you can shave off the compressed kernel image is another > > > byte you can use for userspace on your FLASH. > >=20 > > Now let's see if that 1MB 386 contains any flash at all. Guesses? =20 >=20 > I've certainly worked on such devices. I expect there are more of them > still in service, than, say, Voyagers. >=20 > I haven't looked at whether this CPUID stuff is worth the trouble, I'm > just responding to your argument about init code. Init code is > definitely not free. It takes up storage space, which can be extremely > valuable. Ack. Some people are putting Linux kernels in the "BIOS" (i.e. ROM chip) when using LinuxBIOS (www.linuxbios.org). It _does_ make a lot of difference there how big the kernel is. At the moment you can't do that with anything smaller than a 1 MB chip. But if people could use 512 KB chips because the kernel is small enough that would sure be a great thing. In such scenarios every single byte matters. Uwe. --=20 http://www.hermann-uwe.de | http://www.holsham-traders.de http://www.crazy-hacks.org | http://www.unmaintained-free-software.org --OROCMA9jn6tkzFBc Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: Digital signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGoGPiXdVoV3jWIbQRArMsAJ98ucQKZaEUXUuJRWna+5wR1pt2NgCeK81F JmhbIBpANAzVozBTLMIgROk= =Tsy5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --OROCMA9jn6tkzFBc--