| Another issue is that NewtonOS needs the MMU and interruptions. But
| so does MacOS and it runs in MacOnLinux.
Yep, MacOnLinux is doing some kind of virtualization here similar to VMware,
I think.
So, if I understand you right, we would also need a virtualization layer,
which does the whole memory managing and controlling part + exposes the
hardware layer to the interface in ROM needed to run NewtonOS on top of (for
example) a BSD derivative.
| I think that indeed an underlying big-endian unix (preferrably a BSD
| as far as I'm concerned) is the way to go. And we could then shortcut
| some NewtonOS functions and plug them to the unix equivalent.
and
| Writing drivers from scratch (or porting them) is more work as you
| say. Testing them will be a complete headache.
Sorry, I was a little bit unclear in this respect. I implicitly meant that
there is still a lot of work to be done, but porting drivers would be
"easier" than writing everything from scratch, given the fact that the
existing structure can be used without to much hassle.
I'm not quite sure, what OS options exist on the PocketPC platform. But from
what I've heard, there are some Linux derivates already working on those
StrongARM/XScale devices and they already have support for device-specific
features (like touchscreen/display support, sound, etc). The Sharp Zaurus is
a good example for a commercially available device.
No idea how far NetBSD is in this respect, but it seems to very portable to
different platforms. NetBSD's kernel memory footprint also seems to be quite
small, given the fact that there is a version running on Sega's Dreamcast
gaming console (only 16MB of RAM).
For the StrongARM PocketPC port of NetBSD there seem to be quite a lot
features already added: http://www.netbsd.org/Ports/hpcarm/
NewtBSD running NewtOS on top of BSD, hehe :)
At the moment this is all very theoretical and speculative. But if Paul says
it would be "doable" with a group of developers, I trust him in this
respect. :)
So, I would be willing to help. Who else is interested in a project with
this difficulty?
Regards,
Andre Beckedorf
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