Hi Chris, hi all,

On Sun, 17 Dec 2000, Chris Gilbert wrote:
> > thats right... i dont know any other system next to Millipede's
> > forthcoming Imago and the Microdigital Omega with Xscale option ...
> 
> Nod, has anyone been in contact with either company?  I know that a while 
> back I tried one of them, but they never replied.  I'd certainly like to see 
> us getting a port onto decently specced arm hardware (comparing this to the 
> RiscPC)  Currently I need to talk to sort out the netstation thing. (I've 
> just not had time!)

Well i dont know how much i can disclose, but i've been in contact with
Millipede .... and we're both trying to get it a even more funkier machine
:)) but i'll have to ask Millipede before disclosing more ... i am sorry
...

> > Dont really see the connection to ELF really... i mean, its just another
> > processor... not really that huge a port ... unless we want to change the
> > FP code to more suit the capabilities of the ARMv5 instruction set etc...
> 
> I'm sure there was something about the alignment requirements of something 
> (maybe it was thumb not xscale...)   There was talk on one of the tech lists 
> of creating libraries that included the arcitecture type, so you could have 
> an armv4 optimsed lib, etc.  But I think it might have to be more based on 
> available features, eg RiscPC's can't do the half work loads etc.

Oh i see, well i didnt connect this that much on the Xscale for the
current StrongARM's can use the halfword access too on the CATS etc...

> Nod, I've not had time to look yet (just finished a week doing Panto.)  Have 
> you had much time to look into the debugger thing?

No not yet... i first wanted to get the thing working on StrongARM and the
likes.... and to get the screen functional. When i'll have time again to
look at it, i'll start with that for thats the only real issue left before
it reaches the functionality of the old one. Might have something to do
with the VM system (access?). I'll also will have to look at a more
detailed level i fear... maybe just a small error... like they tend to be
hehehe...

> Are you planning on doing a front end of some kind?  Perhaps it's possible to 
> retro fit the new bootloader with the old front end (although that does 
> require a copy of the Acorn C compiler, unless gcc on riscos would do the 
> trick)

Well, i might use a command line interface thingy like the other machines
have, but in the same way it could be a BASIC program with a WIMP
interface... i dont know ... but honestly i think this is a second order
problem ... first get the loader all OK... the rest can come...

> No probs, I'm just trying to get communication going on the arm32 list, it 
> was fairly quiet for a long long time, I can't code (It's a contractural 
> thing, as aposed to lack of skill)  but I can at least attempt to make sure 
> we don't duplicate work between different people.

Oh bugger!! ... yes well i agree... thats why i started the TODO thread
some time ago :)) and it worked great :)

Cheers,
Reinoud