The Long Life of Hardware

• Commodore 64
  • Built in 1982
  • End Production 1993
  • 1 Mhz 6510 cpu
  • 64K RAM 20K ROM
  • No user serviceable parts
  • Original List Price $595

Want to run C64 software?

• Commodore 64 system on Ebay today costs around $10.50
• Run a software emulator on Linux
  • Vice -- http://www.viceteam.org/

Video Games

• Elevator Action
  • Released by Tatio in 1983

Elevator Action today?

• Buy the game on Ebay (if you find it)
• Use an emulator
  • Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME)
  • http://www.mame.net/

Old Operating Systems

• VMS – “Virtual Memory System” was the operating system that ran on the VAX 11/780

VMS Today

• VMS has been ported to both the DEC Alpha and the Intel Itanium.
• OpenVMS – http://www.openvms.org
• FreeVMS – http://freshmeat.net/project/freevms

Points to Remember

• Hardware lasts forever
• Software lasts a little longer

Compiler Flow

• 1) Parse human provided code
• 2) Translate to RTL
• 3) Optimize
• 4) Link to resolve references to external library calls
• 5) Generate machine code

Compilers

• Native
  • Runs on Machine A, builds code that runs on Machine A
• Cross Compiler
  • Runs on Machine A, builds code that runs on Machine B

Why use a cross compiler?

• The target machine is so new that a native compiler does not exist yet.
• The target machine has too little memory to run a native compiler.
• The target machine is too slow to do useful development.
• The target system uses a different architecture than the development system

Linux on multiple architectures

• ARM - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk
• Sun Sparc - http://auroralinux.org
• Mips Linux - http://www.linux-mips.org
• PowerPC - http://www.penguinppc.org
• Motorola 68000 - http://www.mac.linux-m68k.org
• Microcontrollers - http://www.uclinux.org

What's needed to build a compiler?

• The source code of GCC
  • And an older version to build the new version with.
• The source code of Glibc
  • Building C requires the C library.
• Binutils
  • This is the assembler, the linker, BFD, objdump, nm and others.
• Linux kernel source (for system headers)

What does the Cobalt Qube2 offer?

• Apache
• NFS
• Apple Talk
• Samba
• DNS
• DHCP
• SNMP

Why is this an appliance?

• No keyboard (use the arrow keys to set the IP address)
• No mouse
• No monitor
• No removable media
• It is for the most part, a sealed system.

Security patches or OS upgrades?

• With no removable media, the options are
• limited.
• Software updates through a web page using CGI and Java.
• Network boot followed by NFS mounted root from another machine.
• TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol)

Other examples of Linux based appliances

• Phone systems (cell phones and PBXs)
• Robots
• Routers
• PDAs
• Digital music players