"Dale Jr, William" wrote:
>
> I think the DOS port is important.
>
> There are Free or at least Cheap DOS clones and I 'd like to  see a SBC
> running DOS w/ Gnat Ada 95 as a very interesting real-time system.  DOS is
> the next best thing to NO Operating system - which is were I think Ada
> really shines!    If the DOS / Gnat Ada 95 supported Ada tasking it could be
> awesome!  I don't think it does in previous versions.
>
> So sitting in a shrink-wrapped box is:
>
> *       x86 SBC with lots of memory, ports, ethernet,  USB what have you
> *       Ada Gnat Ada 95 development tools that run on Windoze and/or Linux
>
> Sounds like a nice prototyping/target  embedded development environment.

Another alternative in this case is using GNAT/RTEMS targetting
a PC.  This would also give you the features you mention -- networking
(RTEMS includes FreeBSD TCP/IP stack), remote debugging via serial
port or Ethernet, ability to run console on video or serial port, etc.
Moreover, since RTEMS supports 8 processor families, you could easily
move to other embedded targets.

I would love to see this combination available for use by students studying
embedded real-time systems, prototypers, etc.

> Unfortunately  I'm not real experienced at such ports.    If there are
> others who find this an interesting idea let me know and we can kick it
> around and see if there is a need.

If the DOS GNAT is really only around to support this type of target, then
perhaps it is time to consider making a binary for GNAT/RTEMS based on
3.11p available.  Is there anyone interested in that alternative?


> Bill Dale
> LMMS
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>

--
Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
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