271–280 of 415 posts
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I can't tell from the datasheets and the description. Does this ucontroller have an MMU?
It’s an A9, same as on Xilinx Zynq 7000 series, 32-bit ARM core with full MMU.
To me it's truly mind-bogging that a tiny $1.42 chip contains almost everything needed to boot Linux: a 500mhz cpu, 32MB SDRAM, 2D GPU, SD/MMC support, and USB controller, all packaged inside a 10mm x 10mm chip? It makes me really want to get into embedded development.
Calling this embedded system feels like insult to the spirit of 'running light without overbyte', because it's so comically capable. My first PC had 66/33 MHz 80486 processor and 8 MB ram, 320 MB HDD. You could run AutoCAD, play Doom, Civilization, have dual boot for Linux, Windows 3.11 etc. It could compile Linux from source.
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I’d highly recommend Espruino — a microcontroller that runs JavaScript http://www.espruino.com/
For anyone interested in embedded JavaScript but wants broader hardware support and/or modern JavaScript support[1], the XS JavaScript engine is microcontroller-independent[2], and Moddable provides supported ports for ESP8266, ESP32 (the successor to ESP8266), and the Gecko series of processors. (They also sell some hardware kits for folks who want that: https://www.moddable.com/product.php ) [1] Espruino supports E…
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Author here. It's a really good conversation starter. I've given a couple of them out and the reaction is always that I bought it somewhere, and I have to explain that no, I really did the entire design from start to finish!
Really loved the look of your website... Is it designed by you?
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I once read somewhere that the time to compile Linux from source on high-end desktop hardware has remained remarkably stable over the years.
I'm convinced that compiler speed is all a matter of how it was initially designed. Take for example Delphi which can compile millions of lines of code in under a minute or something ridiculous. Then we have D, Go, Rust, and such, they compile rather large codebases that would take C++ a good 30 minutes on high end hardware of today in shorter spans of time (not as familiar with how fast Rust compiles, but I know Go…
C and C++ even though they have header files, make no restriction on what goes in a header file, so it takes a bit to figure out the dep graph.
This is a very cool project. I know very little about embedded engineering. I have a question: Why would MicroPython be needed? I thought it was useful only for simple chips, and this chip runs a full Linux, so couldn't you run CPython on it?
MicroPython dodges all this.
Given the site name, I wonder if he is a fan of Kurt Schroeder's books.
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After reading the post, i was under the impression that the author really did some shopping for major components and assembled everything into a fun shape. Obviously i know nothing about electronic board design, so could you explain which extraordinary skill this required ? EDIT : ok, i missed the part where he actually designed the whole board, obviously..
Designing the layout of the PCB. Populating it with surface-mount components using home-made solder paste stencils and an oven. Selecting the MCU. Figuring out what kernel drivers are needed and what can be stripped out. Searching the web for datasheets and drivers that others have created/ported. Building the userland. Debugging and testing. Like many pieces of technology, once you lay out the steps it starts to loo…
Since a few years now, there are entire Linux systems on USB drives, for example.
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Yeah, maybe it's a "I don't like this" vote. I tend to agree - I find embedded software engineering skills quite intimidating. Nevertheless, the market demand just isn't as high.
Where's the mystery? Someone looks at what this guy did for his business card and, to paraphrase, says "Wow, look at this guy's skills. He must charge a very, very non-average amount of money for them." Your response to this is "But actually, according to payscale.com, an average embedded software engineer only makes X." 1. Nobody likes but-actually posts. 2. Quoting average salary when someone is commenting on how n…
The OP said the skills are "mindbogglingly expensive". From personal experience they aren't (I worked in a team with embedded engineers with similar skills to those required for this).
I thought this was well understood - it's been discussed here a number of times.
I added the average salaries after getting voted down to -2 and that turned around the voting.
While there are a number of issues with average salaries I think it's notable that no one is claiming the opposite.
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Calling this embedded system feels like insult to the spirit of 'running light without overbyte', because it's so comically capable. My first PC had 66/33 MHz 80486 processor and 8 MB ram, 320 MB HDD. You could run AutoCAD, play Doom, Civilization, have dual boot for Linux, Windows 3.11 etc. It could compile Linux from source.
There's embedded devices with an order of magnitude more CPU and two orders more RAM, if you're being strict about what counts as "embedded". If you're not, probably another order of magnitude on each.