Hi everyone
I have been reading this group and see that it covers technical matters well, The questions I have deal more with making an informed decision whether the Linux kernel route is the way to go for us.
I run a small company called JAD Systems in South Africa. We have done quite a lot of embedded work but have almost without exception used microchip products ( coding in assembler, picbasic and C), Our needs have grown a little and we need to do some Ethernet enabled embedded solutions. I purchased a ST ARM9 dev board with a KIEL compiler and J-Tag unit and was shocked to find out that the price of the full KIEL compiler is about 10,000 $, we are therefore looking at other options. There are some GNU tools available for the ARM controllers and of course there is the Linux Kernel option, so here are my questions relating to the Linux Kernel option. Please keep in mind that we would like to minimize our development time and I am concerned that as relative beginners it might just be more cost effective to purchase the KIEL compiler. I do think that once we are up and running having an OS on the chip will make it so much more scalable. O yes we have done some development on Linux fox boards and really enjoyed the experience.
1)How big give or take is a standard Kernel footprint? would I have to add external memory to the device? 2)Can I work in a windows environment or do I have to install or emulate Linux? 3)Is the development environments well documented? 4)What Kernel options are available? what's a good start? 5)Are there commercial versions available? 6)Is the KIEL J-Tag unit supported under Linux? 7)Any other options I should consider before making the decision?I know this is a lot of questions but I would be thankful for any guidance.