Message-ID: <385ACA26.D9C9FC40@iclinks.com>
From: Steve Drake <sdrake AT iclinks DOT com>
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Subject: djgpp appropriate for embedded system?
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Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 15:41:26 -0800
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com

I am considering using djgpp to develop apps for a small commercial embedded system:

386EX 33MHz
2, 4 or 8 Meg flash, looks like a disk drive
512K or 1Meg RAM
ROM-DOS 6.22 (DOS 6.22 compatible)
minimum of 2 serial ports (up to 7)

My concerns: 

RAM

The RAM space is limited. I had heard a rumor that the DPMI system required by djgpp effectively makes it unuseable with less than 2Megs of RAM. Any truth to this? I was able to write and execute a "Hello world" app on a 512K target (the exe was 100k). I used CWSDPMI.EXE. The fact that it worked would seem to refute the rumor, but maybe I am missing something.

DEBUGGER

My target does not have any video/keyboard, so everything must be done through serial ports (an ethernet option is also available on some systems). The console is on COM1 which you access using Hyperterminal or the like. I want to know if a decent remote debugger exists that can interact with the target over a serial port.


Currently we are using Borland C++ and Paradigm Debug/EPC, but I want to get away from these tools because they are disappearing and we want something that we can support for 10 years or more for internal use and for our customers.

Any thoughts would be apppreciated.

Steve