Re: Development for MMU-less microcontrollers.

[Vincent Jardin <vjardin%free.fr@localhost>]

Hi all,

A good solution could be based on:
  - a kernel libc (used as a module)
  - each userland program could be a kernel module and a kernel thread linked 
with this kernel libc that exports the same API than the Userland libc in 
order to reuse the current source code. 

If somebody could provide this kind of patch for NetBSD, he is welcome ;-)

Regards,
  Vincent

On Tuesday 10 August 2004 00:44, Andrey Petrov wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 09, 2004 at 04:32:48PM -0400, Brian Rose wrote:
> > I am working with the Freescale (Motorola) Coldfire line of processors
> > (52xx - without MMU's), which currently are not supported by NetBSD.
> >
> > Would it be possible to make a "soft MMU" in code and enable NetBSD to
> > run on a broader range of devices? I just hate to see the penguin get all
> > the embedded work. Is there any technical reason why a piece of software
> > could not replace a hardware MMU?
>
> No MMU means no virtual memory: no address translation, no memory
> protection, no system/user mode. All you have is a single address space
> and one protection level for everything. "soft MMU" won't change the
> limitations.
>
> It might be possible to place all you need inside a kernel though
> and run it without user mode.
>
>       Andrey