Has anyone thought of building the kernel into the processor ? Definitely many must have thought of it. But I have never heard of a processor with the kernel on it. What might be the problems in doing this ?
Search for `Crusoe processor' from Transmeta Corporation in Google. This the firm where Linus works ! ;)
-a
-- Amarendra A. Godbole / Spare time LINUX Hacker / Microsoft ``Services For UNIX'' / These opinions are _MINE_. If you don't try to succeed, nobody will try to stop you.
--- "Amarendra Godbole (Intl Vendor)" v-amarg@microsoft.com wrote:
Search for `Crusoe processor' from Transmeta Corporation in Google. This the firm where Linus works ! ;)
Errr ... AFAIK, it has nothing to do with kernel being on the processor. Its just a VLIW processor that spends some of its time recompiling the incoming instruction stream into its native instruction set, with a hell of a lot of optimisation.
SameerDS.
===== -- MTech Student Reconfigurable Computing Lab KReSIT, IIT-Bombay
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On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Sameer D. Sahasrabuddhe wrote:
--- "Amarendra Godbole (Intl Vendor)" v-amarg@microsoft.com wrote:
Search for `Crusoe processor' from Transmeta Corporation in Google.
processor. Its just a VLIW processor that spends some of its time recompiling the incoming instruction stream into its native instruction
It's a VLIW processor with a linux kernel on it to do the recompiling. Basically, let the software do the work, and pass the instructions onto the CPU. The kernel really resides in Flash ROM, and loads up before even the BIOS.
Philip
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Amarendra Godbole (Intl Vendor) -
Philip S Tellis -
Sameer D. Sahasrabuddhe