On 08.11.2012, at 23:41, Chris Cunningham <cunningham.cb at gmail.com> wrote:

> I believe the VM is, at base, compiling C code against an OS - not a chip set.  So, given C compiler for BSD, it should just compile and run.
> 
> The COG VM, where they do machine level JITting, though, that requires knowledge of the chip used.
> 
> -Chris

That's a bit over-simplified. The interpreter VM is implemented in C, and the same C code should work pretty much on all 32 bit processors (and nowadays 64 bit processors too), perhaps except for the FFI plugin. It still needs to be compiled specifically for that processor architecture though - you can't run an x86 VM on ARM.

The Cog VM is implemented in C, too, but has parts that generate machine code directly. Those parts are implemented only for Intel's x86 32 bit architecture yet. An ARM port is underway but far from finished. 

- Bert -


> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:37 PM, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> On 08.11.2012, at 23:29, Open Slate <openslateproj at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Nov 8, 2012 at 2:11 AM, Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de> wrote:
>>>> On 2012-11-07, at 22:39, Open Slate <openslateproj at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> > I just saw where the FreeBSD foundation has awarded a grant to have the OS ported to the Genesi Efika MX Smartbook portable computer. I would like to get Squeak runnin on this platform. Also looking at their MX53 as the core of a self-made project. I am concerned that the hardware is underpowered, 800MHz Freescale i.MX515 CPU and 512MB RAM. I see where the new OLPC uses 1GB RAM. If we assume that the FreeBSD port will be on par with the available Linux OS in terms of RAM requirements and performance, is this enough juice to provide an acceptable level of performance in Squeak?
>>>> 
>>>> The RPi has only 256 MB of RAM and Squeak runs fine under Linux (they do not use GNOME or KDE but a less memory-hungry environment, LXDE).
>>>> 
>>>> The main problem is display speed. Since the display has lots of pixels, and Morphic isn't exactly frugal about screen updates, we end up copying a ton of pixel data around.
>>>> 
>>>> > How difficult would it be to port the existing FreeBSD vm, which is Intel based, to the Freescale CPU? (http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX515)
>>>> 
>>>> Should Just Work.
>>>> 
>>>> - Bert -
>>> 
>>> Yeah, I've given up on Gnome. Currently using Enlightenment on my desktop but that would not be good on a tablet. Sounds like Squeak has not become blotted as hardware specs expanded. That's good.
>>> 
>>> Why would the port "just work?" Does the Freescale chip execute i86 instruction set? (I feel like I am in over my head here.) My thinking is that the ARM chip will require its own vm, then an image will "just work."
>> 
>> 
>> Compiling the unix VM should just work, as others have pointed out. And since BSD ports are source-based, that should Just Work, too.
>> 
>> - Bert -
> 
> 
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