[Oberon] Availability of OberonStation

[Ken Boak]

Chris,

Thanks for clarifiation - regarding the Disco F7 platform. I agree, it is
somewhat overloaded with extra hardware LCD, SDRAM, Ethernet, USB, camera
I/F, audio etc.

Which is why my first exercise with the STM32F746 was to put it on a simple
breakout board - with nothing but the bare essentials.

This gave me a stripped down platform on which I could focus on bare metal
programming.

http://sustburbia.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/first-steps-coding-and-speed-testing.html



On 18 January 2016 at 13:34, Chris Burrows <chris at cfbsoftware.com> wrote:

> >
> > From: Oberon [mailto:oberon-bounces at lists.inf.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of
> > Ken Boak
> > Sent: Monday, 18 January 2016 7:29 PM
> > To: oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch
> > Subject: [Oberon] Availability of OberonStation
> >
> > Have any of the list had experience of the Oberon system on the
> > Xilinx Artix-7  - specifically on the $99 Arty board - is this a
> > preferred platform?
> >
>
> It is likely that I have had the most experience on the Xilinx Artix-7
> seeing as I ported our 'embedded' subset of ProjectOberon to the Arty board
> ;-)
>
> I agree with Walter. Oberon-07 is an ideal language for developing
> embedded applications. I'm not sure what you mean by 'preferred platform'.
> The Arty (Artix-7) and the Pippistrello (Spartan-6 LX45) development boards
> are the only two I have found so far that have sufficient BRAM to run
> embedded ProjectOberon without external SRAM.
>
> Saanlima's Pippistrello is about $50 more than the Arty. However, the
> Pippistrello does have a built-in SD Card socket and can also be used as an
> ProjectOberon Workstation development system with Saanlima's optional
> Oberon SRAM 'Wing'.
>
> There are many simpler FPGA boards available but all the ones I have found
> use less-capable FPGA devices with insufficient BRAM. The Arty and the
> Pippistrello have more features than are needed for embedded Oberon
> applications like those on the ARM Cortex-M3/M4 boards that we support.
> However, I guess that doesn't matter for those who are designing their own
> boards and just want an off-the-shelf reference system to use for
> prototyping / proof of concept.
>
> If on the other hand you want to run the complete Project Oberon
> 'workstation' system with VGA / HDMI, keyboard and mouse. You will need a
> board with external SRAM like the OberonStation. An Arty would not be
> suitable for this purpose.
>
> > Finally, and perhaps best addressed  to Chris Burrows - I see that
> > you have produced packages for the ARM M3 and M4 Cortex - mainly NXP.
> > Do you have any aspirations to port to Cortex M7 - such as the $50
> > STM32F7 Discovery Platform - which has a great selection of useful
> > hardware on-board?
> >
>
> There used to be an clear distinction between the simple 8-bit
> microcontroller at one end of the spectrum and the 64-bit PC at the other.
> In recent years the two have started to converge. The embedded systems are
> becoming more powerful; the PCs are becoming smaller and less power-hungry
> - the distinction is blurring.
>
> The STM32F7 Discovery Platform seems to me to be more a miniature PC than
> a high-power embedded system. While we remain focused on supporting
> embedded systems we are unlikely to be targeting it,
>
> Regards,
> Chris
>
> Chris Burrows
> CFB Software
> http://www.astrobe.com/RISC5
>
>
>
> --
> Oberon at lists.inf.ethz.ch mailing list for ETH Oberon and related systems
> https://lists.inf.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/oberon
>
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