xscale port of fedora core 2

[Paul Iadonisi]

On Tue, 2004-08-10 at 07:53, Lennert Buytenhek wrote:

[snip]

> [ For those not in the know: the IXP2400 is basically just an xscale
>   (which is Intel's version of ARM) processor, with some extra on-chip
>   processing logic for fast network processing.  The chip itself has
>   an integrated memory controller, 64b/66MHz PCI unit, 4Gbps SPI-3 bus,
>   and 8 on-chip processors which have a very simple instruction set
>   designed to do network-related things such as switching, routing,
>   firewalling, etc.  It can do full wire speed 4xGbps processing, and
>   its bigger brother, the IXP2800, does full wire speed 10xGbps.  ]

  So how close is this processor to the older StrongArm processor used
in the now orphaned Netwinder?
  There's actually a port of Red Hat 9 to the netwinder (called Gonzo),
but I don't know if it's still available at ftp.netwinder.org, though I
do have a copy, along with some patches I came up with to get more
packages to build.  (Aside: one of the key fixes, which you might have
already found, is getting libtool to recognize the platform correctly. 
That allows a non-trivial number of other packages to build.  Though
this may already be fixed in more recent versions of libtool, I don't
know.)
  There were some issues with the firmware source not being
redistributable, but the binaries being included in the nw9 image
(though it was an obvious GPL violation on the part of those who made
the modifications, since it is, in fact, based on Linux), but I can at
least make the image without the firmware available and/or my patches.
  I would love to breath new life into my old 200MHz/64MB Netwinder, so
I would most definitely be interested in helping out with this port. 
However, given the measly CPU/memory of this system, I won't be able to
contribute much in the way of the larger RPMS.  It also depends on how
compatable StrongArm is with the Xscale.
--
-Paul Iadonisi
 Senior System Administrator
 Red Hat Certified Engineer / Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly?  --  Try Linux.
 GPL all the way: Sell services, don't lease secrets