On Thu, 3 Dec 1998, Shawn T. Rutledge wrote:
> > BIOSless, from memory mapped flash, w/ little RAM. I had figured that a system
> > with memory mapped flash *COULD* have the kernel's static (read-only) part--
> > code and constants in flash, and decompress the r/w data section into RAM. We
> > could probably get by with VERY little ram for the kernel this way, although
> > I'm not sure how much code vs. data there actually is in the kernel.
>
> Yes, this is the clincher. But we need to do this for all programs, not just
> the kernel.
Not really. The reason to do it with the kernel is that it's non-pageable.
With user space, code pages resident on disk can be discarded when memory
gets tight. Even better, when the "disk" is actually a part of the address
space, the in-use and on-disk page can be made to be one and the same (see
the ramdisk driver for an example of this) so making apps run straight out
of flash is practically a gimme.
The more I think about it, the more doable I think this PC-on-a-stick
thing is.
--
"Love the dolphins," she advised him. "Write by W.A.S.T.E.."
