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Copyright Linux International 2015 1 of 21 Take No Prisoners: Winning With ARM and Linaro By Jon “maddog” Hall
Copyright Linux International 20151 of 21
Take No Prisoners:Winning With ARM and Linaro
ByJon “maddog” Hall
Copyright Linux International 20152 of 21
My “Second Computer”
● PDP-8 Assembler– 4000 12-bit
words
– Data and Instructions same length
● From a book– Plenty of
practice
Nobody told me “assembly was difficult”
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Digital Equipment Corportation Users Society (DECUS)
● Library of software for the cost of copying– Sharing of source code
● Groups of customers who designed the meetings● Eventually devolved to DEC marketing event
– Went from two meetings per year at 19000 each
– Last meeting had 300 people, mostly DEC
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DECUS In May of 1994:New Orleans
● Linux V1.0:– 32 Bit
– Intel (CISC)
● Convinced Linus to do Alpha port:
– 64 bit
– Alpha RISC
I learned the power of the community
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Would Closed Source Allow Them To Do This?
● Enterprise Creator – 22
● President - 21
● Kernel Developer – 15
● Distribution Developer - 14
● Soweto Entrepreneur – 22
● Distribution Developer - 12
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Colombia: Arduinos and RPis
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Many Little ARM Computers:45 USD – 199 USD
BeagleBoneBlack Hackberry 10ODROID-U3
OlimoX - LIME Pandaboard
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How To Win● Make ARM and Linaro everyday words● Make ARM/Linaro and “Freedom” synonymous
– Freedom of choice
– Freedom (and ease) of information
– Freedom to use for any purpose
● Establish a “community”– Make them feel welcome
– Listen to their ideas
– Explain your actions
– When you are wrong, admit it
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Make IT Easy(er)
● “ARM for Dummies”● Information for gratis
– Non-examples: ● Assembly language books cost ~ 80 USD
– Example:● Assembly for RPi – 18.51 USD
● “Why can't I install an ARM system like I can an Intel system”.....boot!
– Thanks Wookie!
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Encourage Projects;Encourage Entrepreneurship
● Examples– Raspberry Pi Foundation
– IoT
● Research● Contests
– Prizes include vendor boards
● Publish user projects that are “open”
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Education● Guide development of entire University
curriculums using ARM/FOSS– Computer Engineering (Compilers, OS,
Database)
– Networking
– Systems Administration
– Embedded systems
– Graphics and GPUs
– New and unique processors (FPGAs)
● Make it easy for professors to teach it● Use Raspberry Pi Foundation to further K-12
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Universities
● Make REAL relationships with major (and second-tier) research universities
– Cambridge, Carnigie Mellon, Berkeley, Stanford, Columbia, etc.
– University of Sao Paulo, University of Monterey, etc.
● Facilitate them sharing research with each other and with Linaro/ARM
● Research with closed source is hard
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Research● Other “Open” operating systems
– TinyOS
– *BSD
– Hurd
● A “Smaller kinder kernel” (6000 lines) – USP Sao Carlos
– Ala John Lions● “And some of the source code has comments”
● Secure from the ground up (flashable boot ROM or “Coreboot on SD”)
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Community● Blogs
● User groups
– Speaker's Bureau
● Youth groups at Universities
– Mentors
● Consistantly publish papers
– Encourage Engineers
– Encourage Customers (Application Abstracts)
● Community store for “signature identity items”
– Community “funds” identity items by buying them
– Partner with “Adafruit” like companies
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maddog's SupercomputerIn a Briefcase
● 12 ARMv7 Cores at 1 GHz each
● 6 GBytes of RAM
● 6 HDMI ports
● 6 SATA ports (currently driving two disks)
● IR on board
● 2 TB SATA disk
● 8 Port Gbit ETHERNET
● 70 Watts
● Fits in standard briefcase
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Why Is This Interesting?● Can be used to teach
– HPC computing
– HA computing
– Heterogeneous computing
– Heterogeneous systems administration (including RAID)
● Very portable, can be assembled in minutes
● Relatively low power consumption (~70 Watts)
● Very modular
● Prototype cost: 500 USD
– Currently using “Banana Pi”
● Production cost: < 400 USD
– Will use (4) new “Raspberry Pi 2 Model B”
– Will increase from 12 to 20 ARMv7 cores
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Why Is This Even MORE Interesting?● Now can be used to teach
– 64-bit HPC computing
– HA computing
– 32/64 bit heterogeneous computing
– Heterogeneous systems administration (including RAID)
● Very portable, can be assembled in minutes
● Very modular
● Suggested:
– Use one “Raspberry Pi 2 Model B” (4 ARMv7 cores at 900 MHz)
– Four new 96 Boards (40 ARMv8 cores at 1.2GHz)
– Two Banana Pis for SATA access (2 x 2 ARMv7 cores at 1.2 GHz)
– Increase from 12 ARMv7 cores to 12 ARMv7 cores and 32 ARMv8 cores
– Estimated price 35 + 4 x 129 + 2 x 35 + 2 x 60 + 68 = 809 USD
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What Can Make IT MORE Interesting?
Alter the “Stack” to accept other small boards such as Beaglebone for additional features
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What Not To Do
● Compare 96 Boards to RPi other than to say it is “complimenary” and “good”
● Have closed-source drivers
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Other Courseware Needed:Microcontroller to 64-bit
“InternetOfThings with ARM”
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I AM Not So Egotistical...
