"Carl J. Van Arsdall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Wrote: To: <python-list@python.org> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 7:36 PM Subject: Re: Python for Embedded Systems?
| Grant Edwards wrote: | > On 2006-07-14, Jack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | > | >> Is there a Python packaging that is specifically for | >> embedded systems? ie, very small and configurable so the | >> user gets to select what modules to install? | >> | >> For Linux-based embedded systems in particular? | >> | >> I'm thinking of running it on the Linksys's Linux-based open | >> source router WRT54G. It has 4MB flash and 16MB RAM. I think | >> another model has 16MB flash. Any possibilities of running | >> Python on these systems? | >> | > | > A few years back there was a "deeply embedded python" project, | > but it's been dead for quite a while: | > | > http://www.tucs.fi/magazin/output.php?ID=2000.N2.LilDeEmPy | > http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-announce-list/1999-August/000157.html | > | > | This raises a good question. Is there a need for python to change | somewhat to work better in an embedded profile? Are there many people | in the community interested in using python for embedded projects? | I for one would be interested in using it - if it can be made small enough - I do not see it helping me with the nitty gritty of getting a system running on bare metal, as the low level stuff in a small system is still best done in assembler - but if there is a display and some sort of keyboard and you can stick to character based stuff it will ease the "application" part of the work a lot - its a natural for doing things like logging and simple transactions - and if the hardware is strong enough to get IP running - then it will open up the systems to be web based... It will also be of use as you could prototype on a PC - emulators and simulators of small systems are mostly a pain as it takes a lot of effort to describe the actual hardware before these are useful... "Small" in this context is an eight bit processor (like an 80x1 | x = 3, 5 ) with some tricks done in the hardware to expand the native 16 bit address space to address say half a Meg of battery backed up static ram as data space, with about 62k of code space available for the interpreter and the custom OS to run in - (Harvard architecture, not von Neumann) - These processors have lately been improved from the original about half a MIP to now give sustained performance of better than 10 MIPS - So they may just be able to cripple along doing the interpreting - But its *Quite a Challenge* to fit the interpreter in, though... It is easily possible to expand these processor's address space to 24 bits - that is 16 Meg - and it may be a better approach to make a 'Virtual Processor' to run the python stuff - is there a definition for that sort of thing, akin to Java's Virtual Processor? - It would be a better approach, as the resultant higher level work would be more portable - to port to another class of processor, you need merely write the Virtual Machine - in whatever Language takes your fancy... What is the minimum set of instructions and structure needed to make a simplistic Python? - does anybody know? Might just be a pipe dream... - Hendrik van Rooyen -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
