Hey Jimen, so where do you think the cutoff point is between an embedded
system and, uh, a non-embedded system (would that be just a pc?)? I
agree with you that a lot of the SBC's out there don't really fit into
the embedded category, as quite a few have more power than the system I
run at home, but I've never been real clear on what would be an
acceptable breaking point.
-Charles
My second comment concerns Linux and embedded systems. At my new job, I
am now working with Linux on a single board computer (SBC). These SBC's
have PII processors (1.2Ghz), 1Gig RAM, Gigabit Ethernet, etc. I hardly
consider this an 'embedded' system. Though we use this SBC for a very
specific purpose, I have a hard time convincing myself that I am working
on an embedded environment. Of course, I have also worked on the
Microchip PIC17X processors. This is an 8bit processor (10Mhz), with 906
bytes of RAM for data, 32K bytes of RAM for code. The only communications
with it is via a serial port or a JTAG emulator. Comparing these two
environments, its pretty clear which one is 'embedded'.
Every time I hear someone talk about 'embedded Linux', I just have to give
off a little chuckle. ;-)
--jc
