11 Oct
2005
11 Oct
'05
6:18 p.m.
I understand that Linksys routers run Linux and they have no disk drive and
no console, so I think your definition is not very useful.
An OS does not require secondary storage. The Palm OS prior to release 5
assumed there was no secondary storage. Every program is always in the real
memory space. The Knoppix distro of Linux is quite happy running on a RAM
disk. I have a laptop that I boot Knoppix on that has a broken hard drive.
It runs just fine. While it boots from the CD-ROM, it uncompresses
everything you run to a RAM drive and runs it from there. It will also boot
from a USB drive.
The closest that the router has to a console is that it supports HTTP on
port 80 so you configure it with a browser. A nice GUI. The router does not
require a console. For that matter, many servers run "headless".
Gil
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Chuck Guzis
Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 11:02 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: Intel 80C186/80C188 Evaluation Board? Re: Single
Board Computers
On 10/11/2005 at 6:47 AM Gordon JC Pearce wrote:
I'm not sure if that counts, though. It may
well not be
running Linux
on anything that you would recognise as PC
hardware. It
might not have
a BIOS as such, even.
I meant "PC" in a much broader sense than in the "IBM PC"
sense. What I was wondering about was how many "appliances"
had sufficient I/O capabilities that they could be configured
to run a generic operating system. This would mean at a
minimum, some way to do console I/O and some sort of disk
storage, as well as being able to support an OS to start
with. So my DSL modem would seem to fulfill these
requirements, as disk is simulated by flash memory--I suppose
an external PC could even serve as a USB disk drive. My
little FAX box has suffiicent I/O and memory as well as an
internal diskette drive to meet the test.
A USR Courier modem, with its 80C188, might, but there's not
much RAM and no way to connect an external peripheral, so it
fails the test, even though you could probably reprogram the
PROM and get it to give you a command prompt via the RS-232 port.
How about a TIVO or an MP3 player? Certainly most video game
boxes have the necessary resources (I seem to recall a web
site dedicated to getting early Xboxes running Linux--it
wasn't as simply as you'd think).
Cheers,
Chuck