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 running 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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