[web-team]Re: [Officers] meeting details updated.

Tue Nov 28 15:07:00 PST 2000

At 2:13 PM -0800 11/28/00, Heather wrote:

>Just wanted to let everyone know that I've added the meeting details to
>the website

Yay! *jumpandclap*

>Anyways, unlike most speakers they have given us *lots* of detail, so I
>wanted to ask... do you want me to just take what the gave us and webify
>it, or should our speaker coordinator distill it down a bit?

There are a few possibilities:

1) Include only the "concise version", given below. That's my choice.

2) Ask Mike for his opinion. I vote for this if you don't like (1).

3) Include the whole kit and cheezdoodle. I think that's too much, 
and confusing.

4) Include the concise version, plus links. That also might be 
confusing, without the background information.

5) Give the concise version now, possibly amend it as appropriate 
after the presentation.

I'd rather not have to try to cut down his rambling notes, and 
suspect that posting them would sort of steal his thunder.

Submit your votes, or suggestions.

--Tom "Butterfly Ballot" Geller

---begin concise version---

From: Mike McDonald [mikemac at mikemac.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 9:56 AM
To: maynard at coolcs.com
Cc: fred_finster at el.nec.com; johnny_wang at el.nec.com
Subject: SVLUG talk outline

   Here's a rough outline of my portion of the talk for SVLUG.

Background:
   Mike earned a BSCS from the University of New Mexico in 1982 and a
MSCS from the University of Illinois in 1984. He spent ten years as a
member of Harris's Advanced Tecnology Department doing research in
VLSI CAD, parallel processing, and X. More recently, he has worked on
desktop and settop boxes for SGI, distributed parasitic extraction for
Mentor Graphics, and secure fingerprint sensors for Veridicom. He is
currently the CTO of A Cool Computer Science Company doing work with
embedded Linux.

Outline:
	Before you begin
		Gather docs/info
		What toolchain?
		What kernel version/source tree?
		Bootloader/debugger?

	First steps
		configuration: make ???config
		include files
			static char log_buf[LOG_BUF_LEN];
		becoming intimate with init/main.c

	Got a shell prompt! What's next?
		You're 5% done!
		PCI
		PCMCIA
		USB
		keyboards: PS/2 and scanned
		other drivers
		user land tools/apps?

	What's different about an embedded Linux?
		Lack of resources:
			RAM
			storage
			tools
			people
		Source tree hell

---begin long notes---

Mike McDonald's Background:

NEC  Electronics  1997 -  present  Working with NEC Vr CPUs Vr4102, 
Vr4111, Vr4121, Vr4122, Vr4181 Worked on porting and testing software 
device drivers for WINCE Software on NEC Electronics Reference boards 
Supporting customer questions about the WINCE software Suggested NEC 
Electronics to start supporting LINUX software on our Vr4181 Osprey 
Handheld referemce design. Supported NEC Electronics to contract 
porting Linux software on Vr4122 Harrier reference platform.

He is actively working with several Linux Vendors to come up with 
Linux Solutions for NEC's Vr cpus.   These linux solutions include 
kernel porting, driver development and application programs. The 
market focus is on digital consumer products.

November 13  2000

TOPIC:  Porting Linux Kernel to an Embedded System with less of everything.

Questions that the Audience may want answered.

1.  How much does it cost?   100K  Dollars

2.  How long does it take to port the Linux Kernel?  5 - 12 Months

3.  How long does it take to port the Linux Applications?  Forever, 
because something new is always coming down the line.   Seriously, a 
few minutes to a couple weeks porting from x86 software to NEC Vr 
MIPS. Cross Compiling has its own set of issues, with the libraries 
supported and directory path names.

4. NEC's interest is in selling CPUs.  Customers are asking for the 
Linux software solution.  NEC wants their business and is willing to 
help the free software movement to port Linux software onto NEC Vr 
CPUs.

Contributors:

Viosoft:  Arriba  http://www.viosoft.com

MontaVista Software:  Hard Hat Linux  http://www.mvista.com

MediaQ  MQ200 chip:  http://www.mediaq.com

Brad LaRonda started this off with a CVS tree and a Vadem Clio 
http://www.vadem.com

http://www.agendacomputing.com

There are 3 or 4 things needed to place an IC into a design. Working 
IC,  Data Sheet, Reference Board ( Hardware HOWTO ), and working 
software, ( ie the Dance Step, the sequence, the register setup)

1.)  The working Chip with most bugs fixed.

2.)  The data sheet describing the chips pin out and registers.

3.)  A working Software example that shows the order of reading and 
writing those registers.

This Software has to be given away without encumbrance. ie  Would you 
like to see working software.  Well here is an example. Propiertary 
Software solutions/drivers usually need an NDA signed with a 
potential customer before the customer can have the software. We ask, 
"Did you sign the NDA?  No,  Oh sorry, I cant show the working 
Company X driver software."

Linux can be given away freely and shows the pattern of accessing the 
registers with known working tested software.

Anecdote.

For example, in 1949 the magazine Popular Mechanics expressed the 
opinion that "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 
tons." Actually, with some of today's computers weighing a few 
ounces, the magazine was sort of correct. Thomas Watson, the chairman 
of IBM, stated in 1943 that "there is a world market for maybe five 
computers." The founder of Digital Equipment Corporation said "There 
is no reason anyone would want a computer in his home."

Today,  why would you want to play songs on your computer.   Nobody 
would want to do that when you can buy a $50 CD-ROM or a $20 cassette 
player or a $10 FM radio.   Here is Napster, an idea from a college 
student.

Dr. Williams observed we survived all these errors because "the 
'experts' making false predictions had not the power to impose their 
vision on the future of others." He adds, "For this reason alone we 
should not allow experts, no matter how smart they are - or think 
they are - to control any aspect of our lives."

Outline:

Who started this Linux-Vr: Ralf Bechel in Germany  working on SGI and 
Olivetti MIPS machines Brad LaRonde in New York Mike Klar Jay 
Carlson Sebastien Huet in France.   http://www.embedded-linux.org 
plus others listed on  http://linux-vr.org

Who supports Linux on NEC Vr Cpus today? http://Linux-VR.org 
MontaVista  Software  for Vr4181 & Vr5476 VioSoft   for Vr5476, 
Vr5074 reference boards. Cool California Software for Vr4122 Linux 
Kernel   www.coolcs.com Debian Linux Century Software for 
MicroWindows, ViewML, graphics driver

Who will support Linux Vr in the future? Agenda Computing and the VR3 
Linux Handheld in January 2001 Linux Users like yourself in the 
audience when you write Linux applications for these VR3 Units.

Why use MIPS over x86?

1.)  Cost.   $50 up for x86   $30 and down for MIPS

2.)  Power  20 Watts   2 Watts Vr5432  350 milliWatts Vr4122, 
Handheld use We don't sell a '12V DC ball bearing FAN' with every 
CPU. This is advantage for embedded area,  like a server in wiring 
closet with out air conditioning.

3.)  MIPS Code advantages 32 general purpose registers with a full 
64bits Where you waiting for Itanium to do a full 64bit register to 
register compare?  the Linux VR kernel only supports 32bit 
programming, though.

4.)  Speed,  even with the Mhz Clock rating of 500Mhz for x86, a 
200Mhz MIPS can get equivalent work completed.

Monitor Code in the EPROM

1.) PMON

2.) NEC Debug Monitor with TFTP download

Interfaces:

AC97 Stereo Sound

USB  1.1   4 types of transfers

PCMCIA interface

Compact Interface

PS/2  Keyboard / Mouse Drivers

Touch Panel  Drivers

V.90 Modem Solutions

Non Volatile RAM

Flash Memory

Adding applications:

Integration of applications to the embedded system.

http://freshmeat.net

By the seat of your pants.  This is difficult work to accomplish even 
if it compiles easily with the x86 Linux

Chant,   Make config,  Make Dep, Make Oops,   Make Clean,  and repeat daily.

Voice over IP on Linux

Download: 
http://people.ne.mediaone.net/kijana/EPHONE/ephone_binary.tar.bz 
(1069 hits)

Homepage: http://www.linuxtel.com/

efone May 31st 2000, 15:56 EST

Efone is a distributed internet phone system. It features a voice 
sending/receiving client (an internet phone) and a central server 
(administered via the Web) where users' information (name, nick, 
password, current IP) is stored. It resembles a combination of ICQ 
and Internet phone.

Graphical AOL Instant Message on Linux   http://www.marko.net/gaim/

Where to download files:

http://linux-vr.org http://www.necel.com/linux

---end---
-- 
          Tom Geller  *  San Francisco * tgeller.com
bandwidthpr.com, openppc.org, suespammers.org, popcomputers.com