Hi Everyone
Narcis, is helping me with a hardware install on a laptop, thanks
Narcis! I am trying to reinstall and it seems that my internet
connection is slow today so it will take some time.
The laptop I am trying this with is old and has no expansion possibilities.
I would like setup a desktop computer just for Hurd.
I have many goals with Hurd but perhaps the clearest are to set it up as
a development environment and to hack hardware with it.
I am even thinking about getting some old breadboard ISA cards like these:
https://www.circuitspecialists.com/at-bus-prorotyping-boards
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-ISA-SOLDERLESS-BREADBOARD-PROTOBOARD-PROTOTYPE-SERIAL-CARD-MODULE-/361869978050?hash=item544121a9c2:g:Z20AAOSw6DtYWZBs
This may be too crazy and I may have to look for PCI/PCI-E
None the less, I would like to hack with PC cards, amongst other topics.
It seems that with a little less driver support and 32 bit operation,
Hurd would run nicely on older hardware. I have lots here. The thing is
that it seems to me that the computer hardware industry has been
cut-throat competitive for 2+ decades now and that most hardware was not
in fact built with longevity in mind.
I am reluctant to use old hardware due to failures but specification
wise, 32 bit, 1 GHz and 4GB of RAM is fine.
Could anyone recommend ideal hardware for Hurd with the possibility of
support for long gone technology such as ISA and/or rapidly disappearing
support for PCI ?
My short term goals are hobby hardware hacking but I have been servicing
scientific instruments for 18 years now and I would like to complete
instrumentation control software that I have started and not completed.
I would like also like to be able to offer custom interface cards to
customers, although I know that ISA will never fly.
As a side note, does anyone think that Hurd might be stable and
production ready in 1-2 years?
I can see lots of value with this project for use in laboratories.
Creating servers to control custom hardware could simplify the design of
custom hardware in comparison with true embedded design. Most custom
designs would not need to be hard real time and deterministic and as
long as things happened on a millisecond basis, that would be good
enough. Portability is also not an issue.
Thanks for reading-Patrick
