Re: What exactly does "Embedded" means?

Actually, you are making an artificial distinction with the iPAQ: since
it supports PCMCIA and CF (and 2 slots, to boot) , we have the very large
range of such devices and configurations to support; many wireless cards,
disk drives, flash, ethernet, serial, etc.

And other expansion packs are coming, including the research one we've
built here (the BackPAQ), which adds: more flash, accelerometer, 2 slots,
VGA resolution camera, power consumption measurement chips.

So think of the iPAQ as a computer that happens to fit in your hand,
not something limited like a Palm.
                                - Jim

> Sender: familiar-admin_at_handhelds.org
> From: Goetz Bock <bock_at_blacknet.de>
> Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:45:34 +0200
> To: familiar_at_handhelds.org
> Subject: Re: [Familiar] What exactly does "Embedded" means?
> -----
> On Tue, Jun 12 '01 at 10:55, Wong Yee Peng wrote:
> > This question is not specific to Familiar but to general embedded linux.
> > Everybody is talking about embedded linux. Does anyone have a clear and
> > accurate definition of the word "embedded". What are the differences
> > between embedded linux and desktop linux? Is embedded linux simply a
> > stipped-down version of the desktop linux with no significant restructuring?
> Embedded means, that you have a limited range of supported hardware.
> Take for example the iPaq, all iPaqs shre the following:
>
> - same CPU
> - two kinds of displays (color for the 36xx, b/w for 31xx)
> - one sound device
> - one digitiser
> - one usb slave port
> - either 16, 32 or 64 MB of RAM
> - either 16 or 32 MB of flash ROM
> - three wait of extension: CF sleave, single or double PCMCIA sleave
>
> This gives you two base models (not counting the unproblematic RAM and
> ROM differences) and 3 expanstion posibilities (for a total of 6
> veriations)
>
> If you compare this to how many different combinations there are of
> desktops ...
>
> So the difference between embedded and not is the limited diversity of
> the hardware. (iPaq, LART, XboX are embedded devices, desktop PC are
> not)
>
> Goetz.
>
> Enclosed component: application/pgp-signature (<1 KBytes)

--
Jim Gettys
Technology and Corporate Development
Compaq Computer Corporation
jg_at_pa.dec.com