Uncompressed Kernel XIP on an x86

From: Vincent Crabtree (v.p.crabtree_at_lboro.ac.uk)
Date: 09/01/04


Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2004 17:18:42 +0100

Hi All,

Im just looking into the feasability of using an uncompressed kernel in a
1Mbit by 16 flash that I have mounted in my Embedded board - an Old Wyse
Terminal with a 486 a like processor.

I tried looking up XIP but these all seemed to be for the UClinux and CE
linux ports, especially not for x86.

I appreciate the flash may be running extra wait states since it is slower
than DRAM but it could also be useful for poeple wanting to run from these
minimal 386 boards with only limited DRAM - instead of 'wasting' ram by
decompressing the kernel into it, the kernek could run XIP from rom and on a
386 at 16Mhz there would be no real penalty in kernel execution speed.

Has anyone sucessfully done this? I appreciate the krnel will have to be
slim to fit.

Thanks, Vincent



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