Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux Ported to ColdFire

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the aint-that-nifty dept.

iKON writes "Moreton Bay has ported linux to Motorola's ColdFire processer. " You can visit the porting projects page here for more information too.

22 comments

  1. No Subject Given by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    uh. what the hell is a coldfire?
    first comment!

  2. Another Prick Screaming "I'm 1st"!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm here!!!

  3. Chill out! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would you dorks please relax. It's for embedded applications. Motorola makes a variety of chips based on their old 68K platform, the Cold Fire, the Dragonball, etc. It's not going to run Quake faster than that Beowolf cluster you all think you want.

  4. ColdFire Eval Boards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    www.montereytools.com sells ColdFire evaluation boards on their site. They cost like, between $325 and $550.

  5. 3.27 BogoMIPS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm currently making the kernel run in a process and I'm getting 0.08 Bogomips out of the calibration loop...

    It's broken, though, and once I fix it, it ought to go up to the native kernel's value.

  6. What the heck is coldfire anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hell yeah, I can run Linux on my printer. =)

  7. Beaowolf Cluster ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wouldn't a bunch of theese make a really cool Beowolf cluster? :)

  8. Beaowolf Cluster ? (no...) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    beowulf cluster, my ass... they're embedded controllers, moron... you'd need a few hundred to get any kind of power out of it... you'd be better off with a few ot those vme-bus ppc boards on a nice backplane... mmmm... now that's good eatin...

    j deadbird (at work, forgot passwd)

  9. Build me one! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Originally, Back in '97, they were releasing the coldfire eval boards for around $100US.

    Everything, sans power adapter and box.

  10. ColdFire Eval Boards by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in '97, Coldfire eval boards (specifically the kind mentioned on the web page) were being sold for $100 US w/ethernet card.


  11. RTEMS ported to ColdFire by Dave+Fiddes · · Score: 1

    Actually this was done a while ago. If you are after a more real-time solution than linux can give then have a look at RTEMS.

    http://www.oarcorp.com has the scoop on getting RTEMS

    a Board Support Package(i.e. drivers, startup code, etc) can be found at my web page

    http://www.calm.hw.ac.uk/davidf/coldfire/

  12. Build me one! by Ami+Ganguli · · Score: 1

    If somebody packages one of these in a modem-sized box with some memory, ethernet, perrallel, and serial port, I'll buy a fiew.


    The cost should be under $200 (the chip is less than $20) and they'd make great print servers and fax servers.


    --
    It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
  13. Ooooh, I want one of these! by mholve · · Score: 1


    Hehehe. :)

  14. suh-mooooooooooooooooooooth by tzanger · · Score: 1

    I was hoping I could use those boards for something. EDN ran an ad about a year and a half ago where you could get them, a trial compiler and tools for $100USD. I bought three.

    Now they run Linux. I modified the one to run an MDA (they did not bring the MEMR/ MEMW/ lines to the ISA bus) and they'll run a standard ethernet card. I'm happy now. Very happy.

    Just another time-killer to add to my ever-increasing pile of tech goodies. :-)

  15. Hardware ? by Tsk · · Score: 1

    On what kind of Hardware does this port runs On ?

    Is there a gcc that knows anything on the Coldfire ? or is it just raw 68k emulation provided by the Coldfire ?


    Ludo

    --
    none Yet.
  16. Imagine the Beowulf I could make! by ed_the_unready · · Score: 1

    .

    --
    ---------------------
    John 3:16 - God's Public License
  17. What the heck is coldfire anyway by cthonious · · Score: 1

    I want to know when we'll be seing laptops runnng one of these cool low power off shoot CPUs and LINUX ...

    --

    support gun control: take guns from cops
  18. No Subject Given by rcooper · · Score: 1

    apparently all that was important for this individual was that 'First comment'. People can
    be so outrageously stupid sometimes.

    --
    You have been assimilated.
  19. Information about the ColdFire by Mark+Evans · · Score: 1

    Here's a link to information on the ColdFire processor. It's basically a 68K core targeted at the embedded market.

    --

    --
    This signature left intentionally blank.

  20. 3.27 BogoMIPS by rabbit · · Score: 1

    I wouldn't call anything capable of running Linux, let alone a full 32-bit CPU, "low end". This is quite a decent processor in any of its iterations.

    But, CPUs like these hit a sweet spot for embedded developers who look for:

    low power consumption
    low part price - enough MIPs for a specific app
    low price to build a system using said part
    high reliability (would you really use something with the Pentium's instruction set and architecture in a medical application?)

    -t.

  21. 3.27 BogoMIPS by TA · · Score: 1

    I don't know what Coldfire is either, but finally there's something with a lower BogoMIPS count than my computers ;-)
    TA

  22. Derived from uClinux by mdurrant · · Score: 1

    For those interested in micro controller Linux check out the uClinux home page from which the uClinux/Coldfire project was derived. Work is being done to bring the cold fire patchs back into the main tree of uClinux as we speak. Great work guys!

    --
    Michael Durrant