On Mon, 2 Jul 2001, Doug Sutherland wrote:
> My fave distro for x86 is now available with choice of usinng kernel
> 2.2.19 or 2.4.5, Xfree 4.1, and glibc 2.2.3. Perhaps the new Xfree
> version will eliminate my x-windows problems.
On the more lunatic minimalist side, I've been playing with the i386/40
MHz 4 MByte box that was dropped into my lap, while trying to turn it into
a firewall for my forthcoming (if the catankerous ISP powers be so
willing) ADSL box.
It does boot both Tom's RootBoot and Linux Router Project from floppy (1.7
MByte and 1.440 kByte images), though 4 MBytes *is* too tight ("yeoow!
unable to mount /usr" and stuff. But I've got more memory stix coming
(straight from the trashcan, as the 3COM NICs), so it's not a problem).
I'm not happy about the bloat. Boy, I am not happy. The first machine
under my fingers had 4 kBytes RAM, the first I truly owned 64 kBytes, and
then 1 MByte (eventually upgraded to 7). While the ZX-80/81 was a toy, the
Amstrad CPC-464 was not anymore, and most assuredly A2000 was not (I'was
running TeX, PGP and gcc on it, for heaven's sake, and even without a
MMU). The bloat becomes particularly evident if you even had to touch deep
embeddeds, and/or programmed Forth on stack machine hardware (I'm a proud
owner of a Novix 4016 dev kit with serial input).
So, don't let your feel as to what is doable be influenced by your
desktop box (I like fat boxes just fine, but I'm always aware that there
you can afford the bloat, and 200W total heat dissipation).
So, the StrongARM small-footprint boards start looking better and better
now. 250 MIPS and 32 MBytes RAM will even let run Linux, and not too
shabbily.
Oh, btw, Forth is very well mappable to ARM architecture. And, of course,
there are DSPs. But let's let Linux be our point of departure, as it is so
very ubiquitous, and convenient.
Sorry for the pointless rant, blame it on tequila-flavoured Frog beverage.
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