Re: Xen Developer Summit BoF Notes : Seeding a Xen + Android / Embedded ecosystem BoF

[Lars Kurth <lars.kurth@xen.org>]

Dario,
I added a few things where there was an open question. Also pointing 
back to the original mail at 
http://lists.xenproject.org/archives/html/xen-devel/2013-11/msg03004.html ...

On 21/11/2013 09:52, Dario Faggioli wrote:
>> == Pieces missing for Embedded (non-Android) ==
>> # Soft-Real-time support - note that this was in the original Xen ARM
>> port - see [[Xen_ARM_(PV)]]. But it didn't make it across to the Xen on
>> ARM support.
>>
> Was it? Didn't know that, and I don't see much about it in the archived
> Wiki page. It's not that important as the project has been archived, but
> it'd be nice to see what was there, and what and why it didn't survive,
> I think.
I may be wrong on this - there was certainly some research (see 
http://www.computer.org/csdl/trans/tm/preprint/06583914-abs.html, 
http://www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/real-time-support-for-xen). I 
added See-Hwan Yoo to this thread who has done the original work. Maybe 
he can correct me and shed light on what was done.

The issue was that there wasn't any demand for real-time when we started 
the new Xen ARM port. Also the Citrix folks didn't understand the 
existing code: we were waiting for somebody who knew the code to take 
the initiative and do the porting or guide us.

However, it may make sense to have a solution that works on x86 and ARM. 
Not sure whether this is a pipe dream though.

>> # Hard-Real-time support: a US government standard / RT kernel / OS was
>> mentioned. In my notes it says '''Arine7''' ... but this is obviously
>> wrong as google does not find anything.
>>
> Would it be possible for it to be ARINC653
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARINC_653)?
Reading my notes again, it was saying "ARINC 7" (bad hand-writing). I 
can't remember who raised this point. Maybe the raiser can step up? 
There certainly seems to be an ARINC 700 standard series.

>> == Mechanics of Bootstrapping a Community ==
>> # Lists
>> ## The general consensus was that it would be a bad idea to create a new
>> list. Discussions should happen on xen-devel
>> ## However some attendees were concerned about the volume of traffic
>> ## Threads related to ANDROID on xen-devel should be tagged with ANDROID
>>
>> [Aside: I am wondering, whether a more low-volume list for bigger and
>> longer-term developer discussions may be helpful. We have done this in
>> the past and all the lists in question (IA64, ARM, ...), but over time
>> these lists had to be culled when the developed features became
>> mainstream. There have also been some discussion recently about the
>> amount of traffic on xen-devel becoming a little painful. I am just
>> putting this one up for debate, but this would probably grant a separate
>> discussion. ]
>>
> I thought about something similar (having a dedicated list) when
> starting the thread about real-time and embedded too. Personally, I like
> everything happening in xen-devel, but, if the main purpose is
> bootstrapping, and if that, for instance, would buy us people that
> wouldn't subscribe to xen-devel anyway (because of the amount of
> traffic), well, I'd seriously consider having the list.
I am not sure I would want a dedicated new list which lasts for a year 
only. This is what we used to have: there is a long history of one-off 
lists such as ova-devel, xci-devel, xen-ia64-devel, ... to name just a 
few. But maybe a list for researchy, longer term stuff may work that we 
can direct people to that are scared by the amount of xen-devel traffic. 
We can use the list whenever bigger and new ideas come along that still 
need to be formed and take some time to form. We still have xen-research 
(archived), that we could resurrect, but maybe the name isn't quite right.

Lars