[Oberon] Pepino LX9, USB, and other hardware running OBERON

[Lars]

On Mon, February 15, 2016 4:52 am, Chris Burrows wrote:

> See my previous message today about using a USB bridge for serial
> transfers. Also, the Pepino can use both USB and JTAG for configuring the
> FPGA
> hardware. These additional hardware capabilities are transparent to the
> operating system. Project Oberon just has to deal with the simple RS232
> protocol.

So essentially it's a blackbox abstracted away, out of site, out of mind,
and you don't "learn" about USB? i.e. hiding it under the rug, pretending
it's RS232 when in fact there is a USB blackbox somewhere in there...

I'm okay with this, just wondering why Wirth is okay with that or Oberon
folk are okay with it. I could also have it completely wrong.  i.e. at
some point the USB has to be abstracted away and hidden from site, in
order for oberon to work with usb without knowing much about usb - so in
some sense it is a black box.  But how is that any different from a rasp
pi with usb that no one really understands fully. are we just moving goal
posts here and pretending this is an "ethical" usb choice?

It seems to be the ethics of oberon is that you have to understand all
parts of the system.  Can you fully understand the Pepino USB system or is
it just a hardwared blackbox?

Sorry for my ignorance, I'm still in the research stages of seeing how
Pepino actually works. FPGA's are also quite confusing.

>
> We support five different RISC5 systems (including the Spartan-3 Starter
> Kit
> which is now only available second-hand) altogether. They are listed with
> URLs linking to more information at:
>
>
> http://www.astrobe.com/RISC5


Thanks, it's helpful.

Regards