[I'm cc:ing on of the PC On A Stick engineers a bit of our dialogue here.]
The problem with the current romfs is that it essentially embeds a
compressed file system in the kernel image. This must naturally be
decompressed into a RAM disk. Not much good when there is only 2 MB to play
with.
What I the Stick and other embedded systems need is a true flash file system
with leveling, write caching, etc. and a flash driver for each type of flash
hardware implemention. This will free up a lot of needed RAM and make
embedded Linux more practical. Another issue is the big 2.x kernels - they
probably need to be put on a hefty diet. Or perhaps the 1.0.9 'lite' version
can be used as a base for an embedded Linux version (I have the 1.0.9
Linux-Lite kernel running in under 900K).
There is a German company that has developed all the flash stuff (they did
M-Systems Linux driver), but it is all binary only and pricey in proud
BillGatesian style. What Linux needs is a couple of OS gurus to write the
FFS and flash hardware drivers under the GNU model. I a competent enough C
hacker to contribute to this, but not guru enough to lead the pack. Any
takers?
James Ewing
