Newbie q - how to start :-)

The cheapest way is to get some old desktop PC (386 or 486) a CF card and a IDE2CF converter. This is very close to a real "device". Then just get some of the preview distributions with real-time kernels - for example MontaVista Linux, BlueCat or TymeSys. They have the toolchains that you need. Of course you can build your own distro (I strongly recomend that) by using the standard kernel source + RTAI, the GNU toolchain, uclibc, busybox, etc.

That depends on the boards Firmware/IPL/BootLoader and varies with the different manufactureres. If you insist on a real emebedded device I suggest you buy iPAQ and check out Familiar Linux ( familiar.handhelds.org). There's no real-time support in it but you can change the kernel (again you can use RTAI).

Absolutely - just keep your code compatible with the POSIX standard ( in this case it'll be portable to not just linux but also LynxOS, VxWorks, QNX).

:)) the prices are in this range because the market allows it. There are cheap hardware sollutions that do not include "Development Boards". You just have to be creative :).

Best Regards,

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Alexander Popov                  ProSyst Bulgaria Inc.
Leader                           48 Vladajska Str.
RTOS and JVM			 Sofia 1606, Bulgaria
Phone:  +359 2 952 35 81/203     http://www.prosyst.com
Mobile: +359 87 663 193          OSGi Technology Leaders

Arm has a small single board computer (uses serial upload IIRC) for around £99 which is a shedload cheaper than most boards you can buy.

You could buy a Pegosos board that has flashable ROM, although Linux has been ported already, you could always forget Linux and port something else, like Mach or L4. This is cheaper than that EBX board.

Luke.

Thanks all for your contribution. Pat, your ideas are obviously brilliant. In fact my uni project is a bit more interesting than what I mentioned. There's a heap of beautiful ideas to build in it, but the basic 2 tasks to build are driving the actuators, and connection with the outside world; an identical unit and/or a PC. For example, my teacher is hoping to have the 2 units exchanging location data using blue tooth rather than wires. Alexander, you mentioned an interesting point; POSIX compliance. Is this compliance a "standard" in programming Embedded Linux based systems? If yes, that will be great, so we all must try our best to respect such standard to build portable apps, right? :-) Guys, I was actually looking for specific info about CPU or microcontroller with its evaluation board. You will be appreciated just to provide few websites. Thanks again :-)

Absoljutly - posix is a general (portability) standard. All operating systems ( except Microsofts :(( ) that I used support POSIX compatibility. Porting posix code from one platform to another is a matter of hours ( depending on the project size of course).

Evaluation boards are pretty expensive - is that OK with you? If yes, try the embedded planet

or arcom If you're looking for a low cost sollution buy iPAQ (preferably old ones from the 36xx series) and use Familiar linux with the development toolchains provided on familiar.handhelds.org (check the Wiki for toolchains). You can attch your networks hardware to it's CF/PCMCIA expansion. Also checkout

--
Alexander Popov                  ProSyst Bulgaria Inc.
RTOS Leader                      48 Vladajska Str.
RTOS and JVM			 Sofia 1606, Bulgaria
Phone:  +359 2 952 35 81/203     http://www.prosyst.com
Mobile: +359 87 663 193          OSGi Technology Leaders

For my embedded Linux project, I used an industrial pc board (IPC). It is small, not so pricy, and it is 100% compatible with a plain PC.

This allowed me to develop my code on a Redhat system, and simply copy it to the IPC. (which ran off a CF card)

This makes life very easy, specially during your startup. (using a PC compatible target)

Rgs Bonny,