[Lazarus] Free-pascal question

[Chavoux Luyt]

Hi Michael

On 7 March 2013 12:11, Michael Schnell <mschnell at lumino.de> wrote:

> On 03/07/2013 10:45 AM, Chavoux Luyt wrote:
>
>> 1. How good is Lazarus/fpc for embedded programming (compared to C)? It
>> will probably be on a (custom-made) device with ARM/Atmel-based chipset
>> (with or without an OS - will this make a difference?).
>>
>>  What exactly do you mean by embedded ?
>
I am not going to build the hardware myself, but will probably (help to)
program the device. It will be a programmable GPS collar, so I am not sure
what the engineers are going to include. But to answer your questions:

>
> Possible definitions include:
>
>  - (hard) real-time
>
Probably not necessary. It will need a real-time clock, though.

>  - direct hardware access
>
Yes, this will be needed.

>  - interrupt programming
>
Yes, probably. I want to include an accelerator meter and it should send a
hardware interrupt to tell the device to take a GPS reading.

>  - code in Flash memory (for "diskless" low-cost hardware)
>
Definitely diskless to fit in a GPS collar.

>  - no OS
>
Although an OS will probably make things easier, low power consumption will
be the most (?) important requirement. An OS that runs all the time (or use
too much power to boot up every time it receives a hardware interrupt) will
probably not work (even if an open-source OS exists for a specific chipset).

>  - no GUI (for "headless" low-cost hardware)
>
Yes! (If there is an OS, it might be possible to have a web interface and
embedded web server for settings etc., though).

>  - memory space efficiency (for low-cost hardware)
>
Yes! It needs to store at least  2160 GPS data points (in addition to the
main program itself and any configuration settings).

>  - speed efficiency (for low-cost hardware)
>
Yes!

>  - cross compiling
>
Yes, the development will be done on Linux (either fpc or c cross-compiler)
and written to the device using whatever pins/connectors are available
(probably USB and possibly wireless/UHF - this will depend on hardware
design)

>  - remote debugging
>
Will depend on the chipset and hardware design... can this be done using
fpc?

.Thanks
Chavoux
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