[FOSS-GPS] RTKLib MIPS requirements?

Tue Aug 14 14:03:15 PDT 2012

Well it might be possible to compile for the STM32F4, but it's be 
pointless.  The solution rate would have to be low if it did "work".

So you got it working on an ARM9?  Could you share the project and 
code?  Was that running under Linux or just compiled for bare metal?

BTW, loads of fun- use a Motorola Lapdock to turn it into a "computer":
http://rpidock.blogspot.com/2012/05/raspberry-pi-and-motorola-lapdock.html

The Lapdock is just a battery, HMDI monitor, and USB hub for its 
keyboard, mousepad, and the 2 USB ports on back.  There's no processor, 
memory, or drive.  The price is excellent for that, too!   However, its 
connections are "troublesome" IMHO- the odd types of male micro USB and 
male micro HMDI connectors are not mechanically sound, prone to bad 
connections, and could even break off.  It becomes more of a problem 
with the HDMI because it requires a rigid gender changer plug stuck on 
top of the port, which adds a lot of mechanical stress.

It's possible to rewire the USB into something more sound, but the HDMI 
seem impractical, HMDI uses a LOT of fine-pitch pins.

Danny

On 8/14/2012 3:41 PM, Michele Bavaro wrote:
> Hello Danny,
>
> I agree completely with you: the trend is very clear.
>
> Tshepang,
> By saying that there is no commercial product development path beyond 
> PI I meant that there is very little to reuse of the PI once you have 
> RTKLIB running on it. It is surely a good learning exercise - as it 
> was with Beagleboard at the time Mr. Takasu did it ...but it is not 
> that useful afterwards. As Danny pointed out -would you want to make a 
> real "market piece"- you would immediately need to move away from the 
> Broadcom SoC and use another chip, perhaps another toolchain 
> (Cortex-Ax are now everywhere), another BSP, and perhaps even 
> operating system (I would love to see RTKLIB on Android).
>
> New embedded platforms are coming out every day. Personally I love 
> Olinuxino, Gumstix, Beaglebone, Colibri, FriendlyARM, AcmeSystems, 
> etc.. and I see three potential reasons to port RTKLIB on an embedded 
> platform:
>
> - having fun whilst learning
> Who could ever desire otherwise?? Can't really argue about this :)
>
> - innovating
> But.. running RTKLIB on PI is "easy"..I must say thanks to the really 
> good quality of the code itself.
> IMHO it wouldn't be a major breakthrough compared to Beagleboard (3 
> years later).
> We run it now on an ARM9 and it took us 3 days of work to go from a 
> blank SD card and development environment to having rtkrcv/rnx2rtkp 
> running.
> When Danny said he was targeting a STM32F4 (168MHz, 128kBytes RAM) 
> ...well that would have been showing off!
>
> - making a cheap, inexpensive product for new unexplored markets
> Then again, I think there are better choices than PI to shorten the 
> time from the lab to the shelves
>
> Beyond the critical thinking above let me make clear that I fully 
> respect RaspberryPI: it's a great SBC!
>
> All the best,
> Michele
>
>
> On 14/08/2012 21:28, Danny Miller wrote:
>> Raspberry Pi was developed by a nonprofit entity.  They don't make 
>> money on them.  This already seemed to be a problem IMHO when the 
>> release date got pushed and production went very slowly as they 
>> released units basically one-by-one.  You don't usually see this sort 
>> of thing in capitalist enterprises.  Apple might not have enough 
>> iPads for "everyone" on their release date, but that's because 
>> they've convinced 10% of the US population that they must have one on 
>> Day 1 of the release and they've bought up all the free mfg in China 
>> to make them.
>>
>> While they made a lot of them, they're not guaranteed to make them 
>> forever or update the tech (it's a maintenance issue). The Raspberry 
>> Pi Foundation is not only nonprofit, it's literally only 6 people.  
>> When one or two moves on or gets hit by a bus, it's plausible the 
>> project will die.
>>
>> It's also a problem that the Broadcom chip at the core of the Pi is 
>> NOT for sale elsewhere.  It was a special, personal agreement between 
>> Broadcom execs and RPF members.  There will be no competitors using 
>> the Broadcom chip unless things change substantially.
>>
>> However, this isn't actually a problem.  The RPI is merely the 
>> vanguard of a new tech of cheap, powerful, single-board Linux 
>> computers.   The "Broadcom" chip is actually an industry-standard 
>> ARM6K core, sold as design IP to many OEMs. Broadcom added the video 
>> core and memory around the ARM instruction core and fabbed it.  Any 
>> mfg with the ARM6K (or another ARM core up to the task) could do it 
>> even without the video core, but might be interfacing through a 
>> low-resolution LCD protocol hacked together, or through a terminal 
>> port (issuing and accepting ASCII command lines through a data port 
>> such as UART, USB, ethernet, etc).
>>
>> But that's beside the point, because the Raspberry Pi will soon be 
>> matched by an equal or superior core running Linux. There already ARE 
>> ones specified.  BeagleBoard was an early one- and expensive, for 
>> what it did, relatively speaking- but Moore's Law expansion applies 
>> to Single Board Computers.  Next year they've got the open-source 
>> OUYA gaming console planned for release at $99, which is a helluva 
>> LOT more power than the RPI.
>>
>> IMHO we can expect to see commercially profitable Linux SPCs of 
>> comparable core power to the RPI, with supporting Linux distros, at 
>> Mouser, Digikey, etc within a couple of years. Note the console 
>> RTKLIB sources are not machine-specific.  If the ports are hooked up, 
>> there's an FPU or enough core to implement FP calcs with regular 
>> instructions, and enough RAM, it should run.  Well you need a 
>> compiler for that core- but right now all this stuff is one of the 
>> ARM cores and we have GCC compilers for the ARM cores, and can expect 
>> a GCC for any core to come out in the future.
>>
>> Danny
>>
>> On 8/14/2012 12:56 PM, Tshepang Lekhonkhobe wrote:
>>> On 14/08/2012 11:31, Michele Bavaro wrote:
>>>> Raspberry-PI is useless for me as there is no commercial product
>>>> development path beyond it.
>>>
>>> Can you explain what this, 'commercial development path', means?
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