Cross-development

So unless you are willing to go to considerable trouble, realistic software development under Hard Hat consists of using the cross-development model from beginning to end. This process is fairly well documented for supported SBCs, though it involves quite a few steps. (more…)

GUI-based Target Configuration Tool

Hard Hat also provides a GUI-based Target Configuration Tool (TCT), intended for building the kernel and for selecting packages to be included on the target. Like much of Hard Hat, TCT is a helpful and nicely designed tool, but stops just short of the level of documentation needed to be helpful for embedded Linux beginners. (more…)

Other observations

The kernel currently provided with Hard Hat Linux is 2.4.2. Upgrading should not be a problem; simply replace the current kernel source tree with the new one. This is one area where Hard Hat's loose integration works to its advantage. (more…)

The Linux Kernel

As mentioned previously, the Linux kernel provides support for memory management, process and thread creation, interprocess communications mechanisms, interrupt handling, execute-in-place ROM filesystems, RAM filesystems, flash management, and TCP/IP networking. (more…)

Graphical Windowing Environments

In the fast-changing world of embedded, handheld and wireless devices, there are many hardware and software design changes taking place. Many devices now feature 32-bit microprocessors from Intel, MIPS, Motorola and Hitachi, as well as larger LCD graphical displays. (more…)

ViewML Embedded Web Browser

The ViewML Browser Project, created by Century Software, is an open source project whose aim is to produce a small footprint, high-quality web browser targetted towards the needs of the embedded Linux applications developer community. (more…)

Conclusion

The Linux operating system is well suited for use in the rapidly growing embedded computing market. It's technologically advanced kernel, open source development model, free availability and royalty free distribution make it an ideal choice for future designs. (more…)

And then what happens?

Now that we know how to get an executable image into the Dreamcast, we need to know exactly how to use this capability to boot and run Linux. To answer this question, we need to cover a bit more background. (more…)

Building the tools

The first step in the process of getting Linux running on the Dreamcast is to construct the tools we need, including a cross assembler, linker, compiler, and a C runtime library. In the next section we will use these tools to build the operating system, and a basic shell application that Linux will run at the end of its boot process. (more…)

Building a Dreamcast Linux kernel

Now that we have a complete cross development toolchain, it's time to put the tools to work. As I mentioned before, I have pre-configured our Linux kernel sources so that they are already set up for the Dreamcast, so all that's needed now is to run the commands in Figure 6 to actually compile and link the kernel. (more…)

Building the Dreamcast boot CD

We're in the home stretch now! All that's left to do is to burn kernel-boot.bin onto a CD, move the CD to the Dreamcast, hit the POWER button, and watch your new kernel boot. (more…)

Part 2: Recent events, and a promising future

By late 2001, Lineo was spinning off their acquisitions and the former Rt-Control team began to wonder how they might recover uClinux. Moreton Bay was renamed to SnapGear, and spun out of Lineo in late 2001. (more…)

Here are Myron Zimmerman's answers:

• What is real-time? — A real-time system provides specified system services with known timing and latency characteristics, so that applications can be designed and developed that meet perscribed timing constraints. (more…)

Here are Mitch Bunnell's answers:

• What is real-time? — The ability of a system to respond to external or clock events within a bounded period of time. (more…)

Here are Steve Furr's answers . . .

1. What is real-time? — Real-time is a property of systems that is often misunderstood. I will attempt to provide a summary of some of the critical elements of real-time computing, but for a formal treatment of the issue with rigorous definition of the terms, I would strongly encourage visiting (more…)