Hi,
I don't know, if it is really possible. But it is quite interesting and
I have thought about it, too. It would be the most energy efficient
linux micro :-) and relative powerfull as well (up to 16MIPS), if we
compare it to the 68EZ328 (http://www.uclinux.org/ucsimm/) with
typically 2MIPS. One would have to create a hardware abstraction layer
and try to simulate a 32 bit register with 2 of the (enough) existing 16
bit registers. Programm-memory and RAM has to be extended with I/O ports
parallel or SPI. Then one must write a kind of software MMU, that loads
and stores memory segments out of / to the external memory.
Greetings!
Andreas
anurag wrote:
> Is it possible to port linux on 16 bit controller made by texas
> instruments name "MSP430".How much ram and flash we needed to port
> linux.
>
Reply by Paul E. Bennett●January 13, 20052005-01-13
anurag wrote:
> Is it possible to port linux on 16 bit controller made by texas
> instruments name "MSP430".How much ram and flash we needed to port
> linux.
One gets to wonder why you would want to. What application do you have in
mind?
Many embedded applications require virtually no OS at all. In my own case I
tend to implement a Forth kernel, which is almost an OS as well as a
programming environment for building application specific languages, and
construct the application from there. The benefit for me is the ability to
easily certify from the metal upwards.
--
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Paul E. Bennett ....................<email://peb@a...>
Forth based HIDECS Consultancy .....<http://www.amleth.demon.co.uk/>
Mob: +44 (0)7811-639972 .........NOW AVAILABLE:- HIDECS COURSE......
Tel: +44 (0)1235-811095 .... see http://www.feabhas.com for details.
Going Forth Safely ..... EBA. www.electric-boat-association.org.uk..
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Reply by David●January 13, 20052005-01-13
On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 02:04:48 -0800, anurag wrote:
> Is it possible to port linux on 16 bit controller made by texas
> instruments name "MSP430".How much ram and flash we needed to port
> linux.
The msp430 is a great chip, but it's at least an order of magnitude too
small for even the smallest linux setups. For linux proper, you need a
32-bit (or more) processor with an MMU. For ucLinux, you can do without
the MMU, but it still requires 32-bit. There is a project called ELKS
(embeddable linux kernel subset, IIRC) which works with 16-bit processors,
but it seems hardly worth the effort - if you want to use linux, there are
plenty of small and cheap 32-bit micros (mostly ARM or ColdFire) that work
with ucLinux.
There are also plenty of RTOS's for the msp430, both free and commercial.
Reply by Paul Burke●January 13, 20052005-01-13
anurag wrote:
> Is it possible to port linux on 16 bit controller made by texas
> instruments name "MSP430".How much ram and flash we needed to port
> linux.
>
In short, no. The biggest MSP430s have 60k flash and about 20k RAM - but
not both together. You can get minimal Linux implementations that will
boot (decomressed) from a floppy, but that's a meg to start with...
FreeRTOS, Salvo, uC/OsII, one or two others... but you'll have to trade
off RTOS resources against program space.
Paul Burke
Reply by anurag●January 13, 20052005-01-13
Is it possible to port linux on 16 bit controller made by texas
instruments name "MSP430".How much ram and flash we needed to port
linux.