Linux on an 8-bit micro

[jobitjoseph1]

Found this on net
http://dmitry.gr/index.php?r=05.Projects&proj=07.%20Linux%20on%208bit
intresting..Can anyone help me to use a pic in the project instead of atmega....

[hate]

uARM is certainly no speed demon. It takes about 2 hours to boot to bash prompt ("init=/bin/bash" kernel command line). Then 4 more hours to boot up the entire Ubuntu ("exec init" and then login). Starting X takes a lot longer.

To achieve this speed with an old fashioned PIC would require overclocking the PIC to about a rough 96MHz and I don't think that is even possible. He says he has a porting guide in the source, maybe you should check that first.

[jobitjoseph1]

Thanks for the reply. Can we Use assembly based os like menutos kolibrios. and mosly the pic supports 20mhz easly so why can't we overclock it upto a 50 mhz or so?

[hate]

I don't think you see my point here. Even with the PIC overclocked to 50MHz, I'm guessing you'll get to bash after like about 4 hours. What kind of an application are you exactly planning to do with that? He got the time, skills and effort to manage to boot linux on an AVR but I don't think that is anything more than proof of concept. If you want to use an OS on an mcu, there are many RTOS' out there suitable for the job. If you still want to boot linux on a PIC, a much better solution would be to compile the whole linux source for a PIC rather than emulating the ARM structure on a PIC. Obviously this would require much bigger effort to accomplish as there isn't any decent gcc style compiler for PICs and I don't know of any distro compiled with anything other than gcc (Clang maybe but that's still Utopia) let alone other problems one will encounter on the way. May I ask what is your intend for a PIC based linux?

[jobitjoseph1]

I don't think you see my point here. Even with the PIC overclocked to 50MHz, I'm guessing you'll get to bash after like about 4 hours. What kind of an application are you exactly planning to do with that? He got the time, skills and effort to manage to boot linux on an AVR but I don't think that is anything more than proof of concept. If you want to use an OS on an mcu, there are many RTOS' out there suitable for the job. If you still want to boot linux on a PIC, a much better solution would be to compile the whole linux source for a PIC rather than emulating the ARM structure on a PIC. Obviously this would require much bigger effort to accomplish as there isn't any decent gcc style compiler for PICs and I don't know of any distro compiled with anything other than gcc (Clang maybe but that's still Utopia) let alone other problems one will encounter on the way. May I ask what is your intend for a PIC based linux?

I clearly understand what you are saying . I'm not at all focusing on linux. I given it just as an example. I just need to design an sbc which can run an os with gui support. I'm much better with pic than avr or arm that's why chosen pic. Can you please refer a good RTOS with  GUI support.....

[pablo2048]

RTOS with GUI - for example RT-thread, Chibios (ugfx), Q-sys, NuttX ...

[hate]

jobitjoseph1: What do you mean by GUI? Graphical User Interface? If yes, why don't you create a GUI thread which updates the GUI, give some priority to it and let it manage the GUI instead of looking for an OS that supports it. I've never done this myself but I think it wouldn't be so hard by using the 'model view controller' (mvc) coding pattern:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller

For a RTOS, I can't suggest any as I've never used a RTOS with 8-bit PICs (or any other PIC ).

[bigtoy]

I'm reading this thread but I still think that somewhere, somebody's pulling a joke. A full OS with GUI on an 8-bit micro - really?? There are so many small processors (I'm looking at you ARM) that already have linux ported to them; the hard work is done - why not just choose one and call it good.

[solutions]

Cost, peripherals, power usage, familiarity with the assembler, external bus width, package footprint, availability, just to name a few