"Perry E. Metzger" wrote:
> 
> Alicia da Conceicao <alicia@engine.ca> writes:
> > Linux, or more specifically uClinux and other variations,
> > support embedded systems with no MMU (Memory Management
> > Units).  How hard would it be to port NetBSD to them non-MMU's
> > systems?  What steps, work would be needed?  Has anyone else
> > attempted this, or is working on this now?
> 
> We (Wasabi Systems) have thought about it a few times, but it is
> becoming so cheap to have an MMU in a system that we're not sure it is
> worth the effort. Were enough people interested (especially, I hate to
> put it this way, paying customers -- we do have to eat) we might be
> willing to give it a go. However, we haven't had much serious interest
> and (as I've said) as hardware costs for MMUs fall it becomes less and
> less interesting as projects go.

Plus, even embedded developers are beginning to realize that features
like process memory protection are a good idea.  When the incremental
hardware cost is so small and the resulting software engineering 
benefit so large, it becomes pretty easy to justify using a processor
with an MMU.

-- 
                                 Boats love me
                                 Sails fear me
Wes Peters <wes@dobox.com>                                     System Architect
http://www.dobox.com/                                                DoBox Inc.