Rtems with Philips LPC2106 ???

[Joel Sherrill]

Thomas Schrein wrote:

> First of all thanx to list for your quick answers to the questions of 
> a newbie like me :-)
>
> As a result of this discussion it seems to me to be worth to do more 
> investigations on that part and to  play around with rtems and the 
> LPC21xx.
> Philips has anncounced a version with integrated ethernet and a 
> version with integrated CAN. But how to use these network interfaces 
> with such limited memory ? Does rtems has a too large footprint 
> compare with systems like ecos etc. ?
>
All of the link in RTOS's are going to have the same "feature" -- the 
more functions you use, the
more code space required.  The TCP/IP stack included with RTEMS is a 
port of the FreeBSD
stack so is high functionality but a basic networking application tends 
to be in the 200-250K
of code space depending on the CPU and servers (httpd, ftpd, telnetd, 
etc.) being used.

A user has a port of LWIP (is that the name) which is a light weight 
TCP/IP stack which
would be more appropriate for lower memory systems.  You will just end 
up with
possibly only the functionality you ABSOLUTELY need for Ethernet or CAN.

If ecos also newlib, then all my statements about the C library still 
apply. When you use
certain functions like printf, they assume a fair amount of 
infrastructure behind them
in the C library and you will get more code space.  RTEMS has a simple 
printk which
is tiny in comparison by only for debug IO.

So code space is a variable which is directly dependent upon the amount 
of functionality
you require.

FWIW if you find that something you did not actually use or need is 
pulled into an RTEMS
application because of an unexpected/unintended reference, it is 
something that we try to
fix.  FOr example, a BSP using printf() is generally considered bad form 
since it places
a minimum burden on all applications on that board.

> It would be quite nice to use only one OS, like rtems, in control 
> applications using in a distributed network enviroment consisting of 
> controllers of different sizes: rtems working in a sensor as well as 
> in a big management or control systems.
>
> I am a novice at rtems. How to do the next steps ?
> My ideas is to buy an ARM7 eva board like the EB40 form ATMEL to have 
> a stable test basis and to buy a LPC eva board. From that EB40 basis 
> it should be not so hard to port rtems to the LPC and  then figure 
> out  the opportunities.

That would be a good next step.

>
> Does anyone has experience with the EB40 ? Or can you recommend me an 
> other one ?
> Can I get further advices from the list if I am in trouble ?

Yes.  There is also the Cogent EDP7312 ARM board which has a BSP in the 
tree.

> Where can I fiind the propper info redarding the use of RTEMS with 
> ARM7 to start ?  I  haven't found much ARM7 stuff on the server, esp. 
> in the BSP section.

The 4.6.0pre5 has all the current ARM support.  Just ask questions.

>
> Thomas
>
> Joel Sherrill wrote:
>
>> Scott Newell wrote:
>>
>>> At 11:16 AM 1/16/2004 , Joel Sherrill wrote:
>>>
>>>> That may be shrunk more with attention to the RTEMS
>>>> configuration and what services you use.  The ticker test
>>>> has 3 tasks, uses printf (often 20-30K baggage itself),
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Would using iprintf() help?
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes.  And I think that in later RTEMS versions, the
>> tests actually (by macro magic) have switched to
>> using iprintf.
>>
>> Better would be to avoid using printf unless you
>> really need it.  For debug IO to a serial console,
>> printk() is much smaller.
>>
>>> newell
>>>
>>
>>
>