[9fans] Porting Plan 9 to the TI Beagle Board

In the recent NeXT thread Eric mentioned the TI Beagle Board
(http://beagleboard.org/). It's quite neat: $150 for a 3" x 3" PCB
w/ a 600 MHz ARM core, HD capable video, and SD card, audio, serial,
USB and DVI ports. The documentation seems fairly complete, although
according the mailing list there are issues about how much of the
video and DSP interfaces will be documented. Hardware-wise it seems
it only needs Ethernet to make it capable of being a Plan 9 terminal,
although in theory that can be added via USB.

How much would be involved in porting Plan 9 to it? Would the current
Plan 9 ARM compiler be up to the task?

John

this is what brucee said a while back about an ARM Cortex-M3
based device:

> I found the data sheet for the
> Cortex chip if someone needs it. A bit of a challenge for an arm port
> but it's fun indeed.

the "fun" refers to this device:

http://www.stm32circle.com

> In the recent NeXT thread Eric mentioned the TI Beagle Board
> (http://beagleboard.org/). It's quite neat: $150 for a 3" x 3" PCB
> w/ a 600 MHz ARM core, HD capable video, and SD card, audio, serial,
> USB and DVI ports. The documentation seems fairly complete, although
> according the mailing list there are issues about how much of the
> video and DSP interfaces will be documented. Hardware-wise it seems
> it only needs Ethernet to make it capable of being a Plan 9 terminal,
> although in theory that can be added via USB.
>
> How much would be involved in porting Plan 9 to it? Would the current
> Plan 9 ARM compiler be up to the task?
>
> John

I've just discussed this with Charles. Vita has a thumb compiler (tc)
which works with 5l.

The Cortex-M3 is thumb-2 only so these two aren't quite sufficient,
but a flag will help.

brucee

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 6:42 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <9nut@9netics.com> wrote:
> this is what brucee said a while back about an ARM Cortex-M3
> based device:
>
>> I found the data sheet for the
>> Cortex chip if someone needs it. A bit of a challenge for an arm port
>> but it's fun indeed.
>
> the "fun" refers to this device:
>
> http://www.stm32circle.com
>
>> In the recent NeXT thread Eric mentioned the TI Beagle Board
>> (http://beagleboard.org/). It's quite neat: $150 for a 3" x 3" PCB
>> w/ a 600 MHz ARM core, HD capable video, and SD card, audio, serial,
>> USB and DVI ports. The documentation seems fairly complete, although
>> according the mailing list there are issues about how much of the
>> video and DSP interfaces will be documented. Hardware-wise it seems
>> it only needs Ethernet to make it capable of being a Plan 9 terminal,
>> although in theory that can be added via USB.
>>
>> How much would be involved in porting Plan 9 to it? Would the current
>> Plan 9 ARM compiler be up to the task?
>>
>> John
>
>
>

I'd like to see Plan 9 being run on a portable device, and up until
now I thought the only ways were to get an iPAQ (but are newer models
compatible?) or to port 9vx to the iPhone (but does Apple's license
allow that?). Can we use this board to make an alternative - the new
bitsy? This seems very feasible, since the board is only 3 inches long
(and I believe square). How would we get a three-button mouse to be
emulated?

On Aug 22, 2008, at 10:09 PM, Bruce Ellis wrote:

> I've just discussed this with Charles. Vita has a thumb compiler (tc)
> which works with 5l.
>
> The Cortex-M3 is thumb-2 only so these two aren't quite sufficient,
> but a flag will help.
>
> brucee
>
> On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 6:42 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <9nut@9netics.com>
> wrote:
>> this is what brucee said a while back about an ARM Cortex-M3
>> based device:
>>
>>> I found the data sheet for the
>>> Cortex chip if someone needs it. A bit of a challenge for an arm
>>> port
>>> but it's fun indeed.
>>
>> the "fun" refers to this device:
>>
>> http://www.stm32circle.com
>>
>>> In the recent NeXT thread Eric mentioned the TI Beagle Board
>>> (http://beagleboard.org/). It's quite neat: $150 for a 3" x 3" PCB
>>> w/ a 600 MHz ARM core, HD capable video, and SD card, audio, serial,
>>> USB and DVI ports. The documentation seems fairly complete,
>>> although
>>> according the mailing list there are issues about how much of the
>>> video and DSP interfaces will be documented. Hardware-wise it seems
>>> it only needs Ethernet to make it capable of being a Plan 9
>>> terminal,
>>> although in theory that can be added via USB.
>>>
>>> How much would be involved in porting Plan 9 to it? Would the
>>> current
>>> Plan 9 ARM compiler be up to the task?
>>>
>>> John
>>
>>
>>
>

buy one, play with it.

brucee

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Pietro Gagliardi wrote:
> I'd like to see Plan 9 being run on a portable device, and up until now I
> thought the only ways were to get an iPAQ (but are newer models compatible?)
> or to port 9vx to the iPhone (but does Apple's license allow that?). Can we
> use this board to make an alternative - the new bitsy? This seems very
> feasible, since the board is only 3 inches long (and I believe square). How
> would we get a three-button mouse to be emulated?
>
> On Aug 22, 2008, at 10:09 PM, Bruce Ellis wrote:
>
>> I've just discussed this with Charles. Vita has a thumb compiler (tc)
>> which works with 5l.
>>
>> The Cortex-M3 is thumb-2 only so these two aren't quite sufficient,
>> but a flag will help.
>>
>> brucee
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 6:42 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <9nut@9netics.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>> this is what brucee said a while back about an ARM Cortex-M3
>>> based device:
>>>
>>>> I found the data sheet for the
>>>> Cortex chip if someone needs it. A bit of a challenge for an arm port
>>>> but it's fun indeed.
>>>
>>> the "fun" refers to this device:
>>>
>>> http://www.stm32circle.com
>>>
>>>> In the recent NeXT thread Eric mentioned the TI Beagle Board
>>>> (http://beagleboard.org/). It's quite neat: $150 for a 3" x 3" PCB
>>>> w/ a 600 MHz ARM core, HD capable video, and SD card, audio, serial,
>>>> USB and DVI ports. The documentation seems fairly complete, although
>>>> according the mailing list there are issues about how much of the
>>>> video and DSP interfaces will be documented. Hardware-wise it seems
>>>> it only needs Ethernet to make it capable of being a Plan 9 terminal,
>>>> although in theory that can be added via USB.
>>>>
>>>> How much would be involved in porting Plan 9 to it? Would the current
>>>> Plan 9 ARM compiler be up to the task?
>>>>
>>>> John
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>

> iPAQ
> iPhone

nintendo ds looks like the biggest bang for the buck. somebody on
the inferno list showed it running inferno. there are emulators for it
too.

I have a few boards from luminary. They are good and cheap. $69 fits
into the toy budget.

brucee

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 3:35 PM, Skip Tavakkolian <9nut@9netics.com> wrote:
>> iPAQ
>> iPhone
>
> nintendo ds looks like the biggest bang for the buck. somebody on
> the inferno list showed it running inferno. there are emulators for it
> too.
>
>
>

oh yeah, hobby land. lea and tiger do most of the work.

http://groups.google.com/group/casella

brucee

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 3:38 PM, Bruce Ellis wrote:
> I have a few boards from luminary. They are good and cheap. $69 fits
> into the toy budget.
>
> brucee

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Skip Tavakkolian <9nut@9netics.com> wrote:
>> iPAQ
>> iPhone
>
> nintendo ds looks like the biggest bang for the buck. somebody on
> the inferno list showed it running inferno. there are emulators for it
> too.
>

for info about inferno on the ds: http://code.google.com/p/inferno-ds/,
remember check the download tab for ready to run kernel images.
an excerpt from the README [1] about the status of the project:

"The port [1] is starting to be usable,
that means that limbo programs (dis code) runs on Inferno's Dis VM [2].

Some of the hardware bits [3] that are working are:
- both lcd screens (including the touch).
- access to spi devices (arm7): touch, rtc, firmware, power, mic, ...
- mpu and caches are working.
- fifos for processor communication between arm7 and arm9.
- audio support (play and record).

Still the port is far from finished, so the port is a WIP
(work in progress) thing some of the bits missing are:
- sd card storage
- wifi networking"

Storage is working also, so the next big thing missing is wifi networking.

[1] http://code.google.com/p/inferno-ds/...e/trunk/README

--
salva

On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:14 PM, Pietro Gagliardi wrote:
> I'd like to see Plan 9 being run on a portable device, and up until now I
> thought the only ways were to get an iPAQ (but are newer models compatible?)
> or to port 9vx to the iPhone (but does Apple's license allow that?).

AFAIK iPhone doesn't have an ia32 processor, so I don't see how you
can make 9vx work on it.

Lucho

On Sat, Aug 23, 2008 at 8:19 PM, Latchesar Ionkov wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:14 PM, Pietro Gagliardi wrote:
>> I'd like to see Plan 9 being run on a portable device, and up until now I
>> thought the only ways were to get an iPAQ (but are newer models compatible?)
>> or to port 9vx to the iPhone (but does Apple's license allow that?).
>
> AFAIK iPhone doesn't have an ia32 processor, so I don't see how you
> can make 9vx work on it.
>
>

I just saw a rumor today that it will have Atom soon.

But then why did apple buy PA semi?

ron