Subject: Re: Support for MMU less systems
To: None <gpn.netbsd@gmail.com>
From: Perry E. Metzger <perry@piermont.com>
List: tech-ports
Date: 09/15/2005 12:58:18
GPN <gpn.netbsd@gmail.com> writes:
> Hello,
> I google'd around for information on efforts to port NetBSD to work on a mmuless
> system, and found some mails. I guess there has been no effort except
> for a brief
> communication of issues/change involved to the source.
> Can anybody post -
> a) If there have been any efforts?
> b) If there are no efforts currently, then when would be a good time
> to start such an
>     effort?
>     Can we list down the issues in detail?

I think the problem is that this is becoming less and less interesting
with every passing day. The cost of an MMU in an embedded processor is
rapidly going to "unmeasurably small". In a couple of years, who will
still want this? Even the $50 802.11 base stations you can buy have
MMUs, and Moore's Law relentlessly drives the cost down still
further. The MMU effectively costs so much less at this point than the
case you've put the embedded system in or the power brick that I don't
know why someone would spend a lot of their life on this.

Perry