January 2018 - Oberon - mailman3.inf.ethz.ch

Re (2): Updated RiskFive FOM schematics
by peter＠easthope.ca 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

From: Paul Reed <paulreed(a)paddedcell.com> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:42:21 +0000 > I both agree and disagree with you. :) > ... > Maybe the way forward is to use SMD, but design > for hand-re-workability wherever possible. > > Just my two .5mm-spaced pins :) Interesting. Thanks for the ideas and explanations. From: "Skulski, Wojciech" <skulski(a)pas.rochester.edu> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:48:08 +0000 > Use a reputable manufacturer with proven track record. Manufacturers > are not equal. Some do lousy work, some do excellent work. A well > assembled board is very reliable. Accepted fully. A customer or user must accept that quality costs more and expenditure on quality is a good investment; not a squandering. The OLPC XO and Pyra is are nice examples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DragonBox_Pyra > Less critical boards, like RiskFive, do not provide such extensive > monitoring features. However, you can monitor internal FPGA voltages > and the temperature, using its built-in ADC. The appropriate software > needs be written, of course. Thousands of hours are invested in hardware, firmware and software to make a system work. What evolves in the subsequent decade? Will hardware remain available? How much effort will be necessary to adapt firmware and software to changes in hardware? Incidentally, most of us are old-timers. I hope Oberon is still viable fifty years from now. Alternatives are becoming worse rather than better. > This conclusion seems logical, but it is wrong. Sockets do not provide > the bandwidth which is required by modern interfaces. A standard ball > grid array (BGA) pin can operate at over 1 gigabit per second per pin. > Special mutligigabit transceiver pins (MGT, which I am not using on > RiskFive) can operate at gigabits per second, as the name suggests. A > socket pin can provide a couple hundred megabits per second at the > best. I understand that speed is a critical factor for data acquisition and for intensive computation. Conversely, System 3 on a 486 PC was a useable workstation. For genuine requirements of a workstation, Pentiums became overkill. If RiskFive is far more powerful than I need but has a mean time to failure of five years and a compatible replacement will not be available in five years, is it a good basis for a workstation? Questions are inescapable. Not intended to be critical or offensive. Best Regards, ... Peter E. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 Tel: +1 360 639 0202 Pender Is.: +1 250 629 3757 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

2 1

Re: [Oberon] Updated RiskFive FOM schematics
by peter＠easthope.ca 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

P.s. From: "Skulski, Wojciech" <skulski(a)pas.rochester.edu> Date: Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:48:08 +0000 > "High Speed Signal Propagation: Advanced Black Magic" by Howard > Johnson and Martin Graham. Wish I could read it but have a stack of neglected reading already and the topic isn't essential to me. Will rely on your authoritative explanations of speeds. Thanks, ... P. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 Tel: +1 360 639 0202 Pender Is.: +1 250 629 3757 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

1 0

Re: [Oberon] Updated RiskFive FOM schematics
by Paul Reed 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

Hi Wojtek, > apart from automated manufacturing, another reason for SMD is bandwidth. > An SMD part which is sitting close to a ground plane has much lower > inductance than the leaded part. Lower inductance translates into a > higher toggling rate and lower electromagnetic emission. Of course, but I was trying to speak to the interesting point Peter raised, rather than just countering with advantages of SMD, which I agree are many! It depends on your point of view, and I certainly value his as well as yours, separate as they are. Cheers, Paul

1 0

Project Oberon inner core and disk image creation
by Andreas Pirklbauer 16 Jan '18

16 Jan '18

> On Thu Oct 12 19:09:15 CEST 2017 Peter Matthias wrote: > > Hello, > are static linker and tools to create the disk image > available for Project Oberon? > > Peter > A minimal version of the system "building tools" for Oberon 2013 is at: github.com/andreaspirklbauer/Oberon-building-tools It allows one to create a new inner core and load the generated image onto the boot area of the local disk.

2 2

HotKeys ?
by eas lab 14 Jan '18

14 Jan '18

It seems that N-O, LNO, LEO have only <F1> as a HotKey ? Ample documentation shows that potential users of ETHO [and wily the linux killer-app IMO, following ETHO] dislike the need to move their hands between keybrd and mouse when saving increments of input text. I like to save often. How much work is needed to make eg. <F2> [my preference since it follows mc's <store current file>] a HotKey, which would: Store the Frame which received the most recent TextEdit? Would that fit in the module which does the <F1> handling? Are there other related problems that I've overlooked?

1 0

Anonymous links vs. names.
by peter＠easthope.ca 04 Jan '18

04 Jan '18

In the context table I've replaced some of the anonymous links with names. UBremen for example. Some of the remaining links can be replaced with author names. P.Matthias for example. I don't want to impose but recognition to individuals wouldn't be bad. If anyone wants to edit the table or OK the placement of his name or request anonymity, fire away. Regards, ... Lyall E. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 Tel: +1 360 639 0202 Pender Is.: +1 250 629 3757 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

1 0

Release.Tool and ReleaseBuild.Tool.
by peter＠easthope.ca 04 Jan '18

04 Jan '18

http://www.ocp.inf.ethz.ch/wiki/Development/Builds mentions Release.Tool and ReleaseBuild.Tool. I haven't found them in LinuxA2 Generic, Nov 12 2017, installed from http://www.informatik.uni-bremen.de/~fld/UnixAos/rev.7447/LinuxA2.generic.t… Also, Build.Tool can be opened. There, execution of Release.Build produces a message "Could not open file Release.Tool". Those Tools are obsolete? A new procedure for rebuilding the system? Thanks, ... Lyall E. -- 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 123456789 Tel: +1 360 639 0202 Pender Is.: +1 250 629 3757 http://easthope.ca/Peter.html Bcc: peter at easthope. ca

1 0

Branch instruction, program counter and link register
by Srinivas Nayak 03 Jan '18

03 Jan '18

Dear All, In RISC-5, why not every branch instruction saves PC+4 to R15? Any disadvantages? With thanks and best regards, Yours sincerely, Srinivas Nayak Home: http://www.mathmeth.com/sn/ Blog: http://srinivas-nayak.blogspot.in/

4 4