Embedded Software

I have a 300 MHZ AMD Geode processor  embedded computer.
What embedded operating system software is out there that I can load onto a
250mb memory card as a hard drive.
 Iam using a memory card to cut down on space and portability.

I have windows 95 loaded at the moment as a operating system, with a GPS
program.

Iam using a GPS for navigation, the Windows 95 takes  up to much memory.

Thanks Mikle

"Eyes Only" <mikle@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4123649d$0$22830$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
> I have a 300 MHZ AMD Geode processor  embedded computer.
> What embedded operating system software is out there that I can load onto
a
> 250mb memory card as a hard drive.
>  Iam using a memory card to cut down on space and portability.
>
> I have windows 95 loaded at the moment as a operating system, with a GPS
> program.
>
> Iam using a GPS for navigation, the Windows 95 takes  up to much memory.
>
> Thanks Mikle
>
>

You could put in a cut down version of Linux in there, just strip it down
until it fits and 250MB could have plenty of space left over. I think the
way it's done is to put it on the flash. When it boots it decompresses an
image to memory and continues running from there. Of course it needs to run
without virtual memory because flash memory wouldn't be happy doing that.

Peter


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moocowmoo wrote:
> You could put in a cut down version of Linux in there, just strip it down
> until it fits and 250MB could have plenty of space left over. I think the
> way it's done is to put it on the flash. When it boots it decompresses an
> image to memory and continues running from there. Of course it needs to run
> without virtual memory because flash memory wouldn't be happy doing that.

I've done Linux in a lot less than that.  Even a modern 2.4 Linux should 
run in that if you strip out the drivers you don't need and other fuzz 
lint that.  Avoid the kitchen-sink desktop distributions and stick to 
simple things like Slackware.

As for swap space...  In the 2.2 kernels, the VM system really wanted 
swap space; not having swap affected performance even if sufficient real 
memory was available.  So we ended up setting up a tiny ram disk and 
assigning swap to that.  Modern kernels shouldn't suck in this manner.

Kelly

"Eyes Only" <mikle@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:<4123649d$0$22830$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>...
> I have a 300 MHZ AMD Geode processor  embedded computer.
> What embedded operating system software is out there that I can load onto a
> 250mb memory card as a hard drive.

A SVGA lib graphical program can probably fit in an OS on 128M.  I have
one with 128M talking to a Ford Aerostar On Board Diagnostic (ODB) computer.

>  Iam using a memory card to cut down on space and portability.
> 
> I have windows 95 loaded at the moment as a operating system, with a GPS
> program.

Are you programming the GPS? Is the GPS open sourced?

> 
> Iam using a GPS for navigation, the Windows 95 takes  up to much memory.

I am using one to fix emission problem, namely, turn off the check engine light.

> 
> Thanks Mikle

Hi Eyes Only,

> I have a 300 MHZ AMD Geode processor  embedded computer.
> What embedded operating system software is out there that I can load
> onto a 250mb memory card as a hard drive.

On Time RTOS-32 needs only about 16k to boot. You can download a free test
version from http://www.on-time.com.

Peter

Hi Mikle,

How much RAM do you have?
You can easily fit either Linux or uClinux in 8MB of RAM and anywhere from
1-8MB of FLASH/NVRAM.  Is the memory card seen by the BIOS as an IDE drive?
If it is it should be very straightforward to put an OS onto this from an
existing distribution (stripped down).  Do you have video requirements?  If
you don't have video requirements & you have an interest in learning Linux I
recommend purchasing a book called Building Embedded Linux Systems, by Karim
Yaghmour.  It's a very thorough presentation of how to build an embedded
Linux system... all from freely available open sources.

I'm guessing the easiest approach is to find something like the various
floppy distributions out there... everything is installed from a floppy.
That's likely the shortest path.... until you want to understand what's
going on & how to make your own configurations.

Good luck!

Edwin Bland,
Orange, CA


"Eyes Only" <mikle@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:4123649d$0$22830$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...
> I have a 300 MHZ AMD Geode processor  embedded computer.
> What embedded operating system software is out there that I can load onto
a
> 250mb memory card as a hard drive.
>  Iam using a memory card to cut down on space and portability.
>
> I have windows 95 loaded at the moment as a operating system, with a GPS
> program.
>
> Iam using a GPS for navigation, the Windows 95 takes  up to much memory.
>
> Thanks Mikle
>
>