In comp.sys.arm An Schwob in the USA wrote: : J Jackson wrote: : > In comp.sys.arm An Schwob in the USA wrote: : > : None of them. Use a PC if you want to run any Linux, that's a system : > : ready to face all the memory requirements of Linux. These devices are : > : stand alone microcontrollers with the memory on chip. The memory : > : requirements of Linux are downright a joke for embedded memory. : > : Linux = external memory = more complex board = higher price. : > : The money you think you save by using Linux you will spend big time in : > : additional hardware. : >
: > Ok I'll byte. : >
: > First off, I think you were right a few years ago, and now there multichip : > boards that support linux and are beginning to get fairly cheap. : >
: > The big question is how long before we get the Linux SOC? 3/5/8 years? : > Full linux not uClinux.
: ;-) I think you will be right in a few years from now ;-)
Thanks for the full informative answer.
: There are ARM embedded devices with on-chip memory starting below $3 : today. Most likely next year we will see the first 32-bit micros with : embedded flash popping up below $2. My point is that the boards from : Olimex are made for this kind of devices, all memory on chip. It is : possible today to implement 2 MBytes of Flash and 8 MBytes of SRAM onto : a chip in a 90 nm technology, the problem being that 90 nm Flash is not : available for embedded Flash devices yet. Such a chip would still be : around or bigger than 100 mm2. As flash always lags behind in the : latest processes,
That I wasn't ware of - very interesting.
: .... to have a device as described above with reasonable : die size (less than 50 mm2) it needs to be in 65 nm or smaller and with : embedded Flash. My guess would be we are talking 5 years from now. : Unfortunately OSs have the tendency to grow as well. Don't know whether : Linux will fit in such a tight environment with 8 MB SRAM in 5 years?
So a single chip Linux in 5 years. It's a bit further out than I'd guessed. Ok can I tap you knowledge one more time, what about a 2 chip linux system - one chip being the flash? We must be only a year or two off?
: Getting to the point, if you don't need many of the drivers / device : stacks for Linux, you REALLY should consider other Embedded operating : systems ranging from uCOS-II, Nucleus, CMX, Thread-X to bigger ones : like PSOS, VX-Works... : The initial investment in the OS will see a return of invest fast in : smaller memory, faster system, REAL support by the OS vendor...
: btw. I am not with a OS company but a big friend of compact software : and small microcontrollers
commodity linux SOC plus the huge open source code repository. I've just got his gut feeling that it could be explosive in terms of what could be done in sohrt order.