some newbie questions

[gregory.menke at gsfc.nasa.gov]

sebastian ssmoller writes:
 > hi,
 > i am new to rtems. i looked around in the docs and sources and i find it
 > really interesting. 
 > 
 > i am currently working in two projects using some developer board (ip
 > 460) with a 68040 (host) and a 68360 (communication) cpu on it. further
 > more these boards have CAN (controller area network) controller support.
 > 
 > the more i look inside the rtems stuff the more i wonder whether it
 > could be possible to adopt rtems for my needs.

Learning the RTEMS source is a fairly long process, you have to learn
a lot about it before you start to understand.  If you can't find
something, please ask on this list.

 
 > so could you please help me to answer some remaining questions (or
 > just point me to the right place in your documentation set):
 > 
 > - how do i install rtems on the target plattform ? i currently use
 >   serial line. 

That entirely depends on the capablities of the target platform.  If
your target has a boot monitor that can use a serial port to download
an image in some way, that will work.  If it can manage a network
interface, it might be able to tftp the image- which is lots more
convienent (and faster).

 
 > - is it possible to write and use my own scheduler ?

I suppose- but why?  RTEMS's is very configurable and very bug-free.
If you want to add a new scheduling algorithm or modify one, make a
more detailed proposal and we all can comment on where/how and how
difficult it might be.


 > - how difficult would it be to add CAN Controller support to rtems ?

A user-space driver would be easiest- meaning you integrate the driver
with your project code and call it directly.  Further integration into
RTEMS depends largely on what you want it to do.
 

 > - what requirements does rtems have ? (disk ?, memory ?)
 > 

The OS image footprint ranges from ~100k up to several hundred,
depending on what you compile in.  Your code adds to that of course.
There is no disk footprint as such on the target.  The cross-compiler
suite and development libraries can consume a good bit on the
development host.

Gregm