Creating Micro-Shotgun for Pic32

[glennswest]

Howdy Guys
I've pulled the source and reviewed, I'm rather interested in
seeing if I can "squeeze" shotgun down to a PIC32 microcontroller.

First pass, with some work caching, and memory management looks
like its do-able.(In C Code)

Worst case I would need to re-implement shotgun.

My thinking is to implement a "cached" memory system, such that the VM
can create a Virtual Memory space limited only with by SD card size.

Also this would also multiple VM even in a small space.

The upsize is microchip ships a million of these a month, a ethernet
interface is
real easy. And almost anything in ruby would run.

Any interests?

[Evan Phoenix]

Very cool!

We're currently in the process of re-implementing the code VM in C++,
to cleanup and fix things. It's going a little slowly, but we're
picking up the pace a bit lately.

I'm quite curious what kind of restrictions you have, ie, RAM
footprint, ROM footprint, etc.

If you could tell us a little more, I'm sure we could figure out how
to make this work.

- Evan

[glennswest]

Ok, here we go:

Internal
512k of "Flash" - Where the VM would "live"
32K of Static Ram
External:
MicroSD - 1-8 Gigabytes
Ram - Up to 1 Megabyte

80Mhz Risc (MIPS based design)

My thinking is to design the vm to "keep" a cache of the currently
"executing" pages in the External Ram, with a "virtual-memory" file
setting on MicroSd.
This way it doent really matter how "big" the "image" gets.
Even a "100" meg is ok.

> > Any interests?- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[glennswest]

There is a "micro-kernel", with threads, and a
tcp stack, as well as a fat32 file system.

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

On Thu, 2008-08-14 at 07:55 -0700, glennswest wrote:
> Ok, here we go:
>
> Internal
> 512k of "Flash" - Where the VM would "live"
> 32K of Static Ram
> External:
> MicroSD - 1-8 Gigabytes
> Ram - Up to 1 Megabyte
>
> 80Mhz Risc (MIPS based design)

Given those specs, the whole thing should fit on the head of a pin. :)
--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com

"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős

[glennswest]

Not to far from it.
I believe I can do it.
And you can have a ruby device on the internet for under $10 in
hardware.
Double sided active pcb will get it close to two thumbnails.


On Aug 15, 10:51 am, "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <zn...@cesmail.net>
wrote:

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

On Thu, 2008-08-14 at 20:06 -0700, glennswest wrote:
> Not to far from it.
> I believe I can do it.
> And you can have a ruby device on the internet for under $10 in
> hardware.
> Double sided active pcb will get it close to two thumbnails.

Smaller than a Gumstix, eh? ;)

[glennswest]

Yep smaller, and cheaper than a gumstix
A pic32 is about $2 quantiy 1.
you rapidly approach $1 in volumes.


On Aug 15, 12:01 pm, "M. Edward (Ed) Borasky" <zn...@cesmail.net>
wrote:

[weepy]

how much would it cost to wire it up to the web ? (i guess u need a
wifi chip + aerial)

[Rich Morin]

At 14:25 -0700 8/13/08, glennswest wrote:
> ... almost anything in ruby would run.
>
> Any interests?

I dabble in HW and occasionally think about projects I'd like
to do (eg, wireless microphones feeding into the computer). I
will probably buy a developer kit and play with it once you're
successful in getting the thing past the "bleeding edge". So,
although I can't offer= useful, let alone imminent help, I'm
interested and commend you on your efforts.

-r
--
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Rich Morin
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume r...@cfcl.com
http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog +1 650-873-7841

Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development

[glennswest]

Ethernet is about .50
Wifi there's at least two chips that would be easy.

> > > Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős- Hide quoted text -

[weepy]

wow that would be so much fun : )