[En-Nut-Discussion] Supporting Other Target Platforms

[Ralph Mason]

Harald Kipp wrote

>> An 8mb dram is only a couple of dollars, there is no way you will 
>> approach 8mb ram and 512kb flash for $12 from atmel.  For another $3 
>> you can add a couple mb more  flash.  There are 4 chip selects so 
>> it's nice and easy to connect a few items to the bus.
>
>
> I'm afraid, that it's not that simple. As far as I
> understood, the low cost thumbs are running with
> 32 bit access in internal memory only. Having Nut/OS
> and the application in on-chip RAM is an advantage.

But running thumb from 16 bit memory is optimal.  It's all a question of 
what the goal is.  To me it's more performance ( to allow simpler 
programing) with  no more cost.

>
> Another thing is, that total cost is also based on chip
> count and PCB size.

And this one is nice, dram uses very few lines, the chip is in a 2cm X 
2cm qfp package.  Sounds like a 2 layer board to me.  Clearly less than 
a atmega, a cpld and sram.

> On the other hand, external flash gives more flexibility.
> It may contain the image _plus_ a file system.

Nand flash is always cheaper for a file system (and I have a nut 
compatible nand flash file system almost ready to release!)

I guess at the end of the day, what is NutOS trying to be? Is it  a new 
ecos in the making?  Does it (Do we?) support process loading?  What 
about AVR's - does it get so heavy as to leave them behind?

Interesting article in Linux world this month - about open source trying 
to compete with itself 
(http://www.linuxworld.com/magazine/?issueid=352&de=1)

Ralph