Happy new year everyone!, How small Linux can go?

Wow it's been a long since my last post. I promise I will start making posts more regularly! This will be my present for this brand new year.

From our side we had been very very busy, and we have a lot of exiting new ideas and projects. Right now we are working on getting Kwort Linux ( www.kwort.org ) an Slackware based Linux distribution, into a machine based on the Vortex86 processor. This is a pc compatible computer, with about 10 * 10 * 4 cm with all the things you could imagine you can find on your desktop pc. Except of a monitor off course. It has RAM, a CF reader so you can use CF cards as hard drives, a VGA board, Ethernet and even a sound system, all integrated for quite a little price. Here you can find the machine if you want to know how it looks like: http://www.embeddedpc.net/Default.aspx?tabid=110

Anyway, the thing is that we got Linux working on it (Thaks David, AKA Nomius, for your help and the great work you have done with Kwort). And we are working on some packages so others can use it too, without the need to waste time like we did.

So stay tuned, and I promise you will hear from us more frequently,

Manuel

Interrupts handling

Hello everyone,

We have received lots of questions from our customers regarding how interrupts are being handled.

Interrupts handling is much more simpler from what you might thought in the AIRcable, even simpler from a PC interrupt schema.

Basically as in any other processor you have an interrupt stack, where each new even get's registered. The biggest difference between this stack schema and the PC schema is that interrupts are only pushed at bottom or at top of the stack, depending the interrupt priority.

Only 4 interrupts are pushed to the top: @ALARM, @PIN_CODE, @MESSAGE and @FTP. You might ask your self why @INQUIRY is not high priority, as we insist so much in making it short as possible, simple because if @INQUIRY would be high priority it would interrupt it self.

So how does the interrupt handler work? Simple each time a new interrupt is pushed into the stack it checks if it goes in the top of the current serviced interrupt, if it does then it goes to service that new interrupt, if it doesn't it will execute the code until it reaches RETURN. Once it reaches RETURN it will go and see if the stack has more stuff to service.

As you might know every processor allows you to disable interrupts, this is achieved by adding ; at the end of each line.

I think this will clarify all your questions regarding interrupts, if you have more questions for us please leave your comments and we will be glad to help you.

Thanks,
Manuel

Command Line Version 0.8 UART Released

Hello everyone,
We found a couple of bugs in the command line version 0.7 UART. Most of this bugs where related to the manual inquiry, and the service master mode. Version 0.8 fix all this bugs, and is another step forward the new generation command line (Version 1.0) which should be released soon.
Meantime we encourage you to download version 0.8 from here.
Thanks,
Manuel

NOTE: There's a bug in the Command Line V0.8 UART for the SerialOS device, please get the AIRcable.bas file from here.

Command Line Version 0.7 UART Released

Hello everyone,
We had just released the 0.7 command line for the UART. This version is a bug fixing from version 0.6, most sensitive bugs where related to mode changing.
You can get it here: http://aircable.googlecode.com/files/0.7UART.zip
This version applies to SerialOS, Mini, Industrial and OEM Boards.
Thanks,
Manuel

FAQ Released

Hello everyone,
We had started a FAQ section for our users. Based in the questions from our costumers, we wrote a simple FAQ that can be accessed from here.
Please give us your feedback, and if you think there is any question missing, don't hesitate to ask.
Thanks,
Manuel

Production Tools

Hello everyone,
We had released a series of tools that can be used for product testings, and massive uploading. This tools are mainly targeted for internal use, but you can use them if you want.
Get here for more information http://www.aircable.net-a.googlepages.com/productiontools2
Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo

Command Line Version 0.7 SPP and Devel Tools Alpha 2 Released

Hello everyone,

We has just released version 0.7 SPP of our command line. This corrects a bug that made version 0.6 SPP don't behave correctly when using a parity different than even. WARNING: Only upload this code to AIRcable SMD. It's not compatible with other devices.

This should be our last release before we make the Command Line version 1.0, which will be fully rewritten from scratch, thanks to your suggestions we could improve our tool, and now is time to make it much better.

We have also corrected some bugs on our JEdit tools, please start using the Alpha 2 instead of the Alpha 1, serious bugs where found on the first alpha release.

You can get all this stuff from: http://code.google.com/p/aircable/

Thanks,
Manuel Naranjo