General Theory
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RAM disk
— Very small disk space
— Does not remember changes to the disk space at reboot time. That is, it always boots up with the same
file system, changes in previous runs are lost.
— Difficult to build, compress, and pack into a kernel.
NFS
— Requires a working ethernet connection
— Requires a host machine
— Protection from hard disk corruption
— Potentially, allows for large disk space
Flash based cramfs
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— Does not need to be loaded, always ready as soon as the kernel boots
— Changes are permanent
NFS has the following advantages
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The target can run disk less, it only needs an ethernet connection
The root file system is only a piece of the host file system, therefore, if the target file system is corrupted, it
can be rebuild, or just recopied on the host.
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Targets can share an NFS root file system, or each target can have its own.
Since the NFS is on the host, the same program can be run either from the host or from the target.
The host can be a full size Linux, while the target can be a reduced version of Linux. For example, the target
needs a reduced file system for an embedded target.
3.3 Benefits for Genesi Pegasos II PowerPC Native Host
So what are the benefits of a native host supplying a native NFS to a target, all using the same hardware processor
architecture? In particular, the Genesi Pegasos II native PowerPC host development system with any PowerPC
target, such as the Sandpoint or the ADS PowerQUICC™ boards, has many benefits.
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The host can be a fully featured Linux with multiple disk less PowerPC targets.
— MPC74xx
— PowerQUICC II, III
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The host supplies a complete native environment.
— native PowerPC tool chain, for example gcc, as, ls, binutils, gdb and so forth.
— Both host and target have the same JTAG/COP support.
— No need for cross architecture compiler, libraries, or other tools.
Host support
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— Coding, analyzing and verifying can be done on the host before downloading to the target.
— Host tools supplied by CPD.
— Performance monitoring, PMON facility
– AN2743, Software Analysis on Genesi Pegasos II Using PMON and AltiVec
– AN2744, PMON Module—An Example of Writing Kernel Module Code for Debian 2.6 on Genesi
Pegasos II
Genesi Pegasos II Kernel and NFS Facility, Rev. 0
Freescale Semiconductor
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