I asked this question in some detail over in comp.sys.mac.system (and
explained why I am contemplating this) but didn't get much response.

Is anyone here using or contemplating the use of an Intel-based Mac for
embedded development? I've used a PPC-based Mac as a development
system, off and on - easy for AVR development and some ARMs (as long as
you don't need to use a JTAG pod on the ARM); not so easy for MSP430.

I'd like to be able to work on AVR, MSP430, ARM (via serial
bootloaders; no JTAG necessary) and PPC targets.

My other thread in c.s.m.s:

<http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.mac.system/browse_frm/thread/7cf5ef823a0a487a/7759551db657b331#7759551db657b331>

<zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm planning to switch sometime later this year. For the "Windows only
programs" problem, a workaround, if not a solution, is to run a
Windows OS under emulation.
(Or the program itself under Wine, if it runs OK)

One of the projects I am currently working on, is based on a Texas
Instruments 28F12 DSP. Their development tool set, "Code Composer
Studio", is for Windows only, of course.
I am typing this on an AMD Athlon 3800+ machine, running Ubuntu Linux,
with CCS running on a second window, under Windows 2000, under qemu.
The performance is acceptable.

PS: JTAG should not be a problem with an Ethernet based JTAG emulator.
At work I'm using a BlackHawk LAN560, but I have not tried it yet from
an emulated machine.


Roberto Waltman
[ please reply to the group,
return address is invalid ]

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143568569.792765.11430@i39g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
I don't know the specific answer, but (as an OpenBSD nut who runs Windows
clients behind an OpenBSD firewall) it strikes me that - assuming you're
using GNU/gcc - the common BSD base *should* mean it should be fine.

In an ideal world. With a following wind. Good luck.

Steve
http://www.fivetrees.com

Hi Roberto,

Thanks for the reply!

I guess I should have clarified here - I want to run OS X on the Mac.
The issue - which is explained in one of the followups to my thread in
c.s.m.s - is that I recently introduced a policy that prohibits, among
other things, Windows machines from having live Internet connections.
(It is the only way to keep them free of evil software). See
http://www.larwe.com/ for a rant on this topic.

My primary machine has to be:

- a laptop
- (effective requirement) running a UNIX variant

I know I can do everything I want to do under Linux on a PC laptop.
However support for laptop hardware and particularly power managment is
relatively poor and (worse) not well characterized under Linux. For
example I am unaware of any modern machine that can transit through all
ACPI power levels including suspend to RAM and survive this process,
while running Linux (even with the latest DSDT patches etc etc etc).

MacOS X is attractive because it's a UNIX variant at heart and can
build all my tools without complaint, and it has guaranteed support for
the power management and miscellaneous hardware in the MacBook Pro.

This is good news

I'm not familiar with that particular product. I've not yet been able
to cost-justify an Ethernet JTAG, but if there was a single product
that supported PPC603e, ARM7 and ARM9, I could justify perhaps $2K on
it. I doubt I'll find something in that budget, though.

Steve at fivetrees wrote:

The compilers and assemblers are not a problem - my difficulties start
when I need to connect to the target. The STK500 and Olimex's USB
JTAGICE clone worked fine for me on my G3 iBook and Mac Mini, (using a
USB-to-serial adapter in the case of the STK500). MSP430, ARM and PPC
debuggery defeated me on this platform.

(Oh, there's the minor detail that my EAGLE license is only
Windows/Linux, not tri-platform with MacOS, but I can drop the cash for
that upgrade and not gripe too much).

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143600590.193174.77130@i39g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
Eep. The only BSD variant I know well is OpenBSD, and that is fairly benign
in USB (and ACPI) terms. OSX is an unknown quantitude to me. G'luck.

Ah. I'm an Orcad-droid. I've been reading your website (and would like to
buy you a drink). There are any number of CAD/CAE packages which I run (and
depend on) on a Windows XP machine, but *only* behind a strong series of
firewalls. I do understand your concerns (only too well), but properly
constrained, an XP machine *can* be tamed....

Steve
(who is definitely conking now: 4am and I have guests leaving early....)
http://www.fivetrees.com

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi. Yes, I understood, sorry if my reply was somehow misleading. I am
planning to run OS X also, not Linux, and for more or less the same
reasons you have.
I only wanted to point out that there is a way around for those
applications that can not run natively under OS X.
The Linux example is just what I happen to have in front of me right
now.
Since the new Macs processors are vanilla X86, I hope some time soon a
virtualization product like VMWare will be available for OS-X, to
improve the performance of emulated machines.

Roberto Waltman
[ please reply to the group,
return address is invalid ]

Roberto Waltman wrote:
If source is available, it should be possible to make gcc-based
cross-development toolchains (I do this for Win32 DLL and EXE, from OS
X, using MinGW GNU tools).

This can be a great option. The Microchip IDE and compilers work nicely
in WINE in GUI and command line modes. (I've tried this in Linux, not
OS X, though I use OS X as my main development machine - Eclipse as
IDE, of course.)

toby wrote:

Yes, sure, but the problem is not the compiler - it's physically
flashing the target. This is better supported under Linux than OSX. And
no parallel port on a Mac

Is wine working/supported/moderately stable on Intel OSX yet?

larwe wrote:
Yes, I am contemplating it for the same reasons. I have a pretty good
feeling that most tools will now be translated to run on OS X as well.#

But to give you some more nice news: if everything breaks, you can
simply boot WIndowsXP on your Intel Mac. There is a wonderful dual boot
solution in the freeware. Apple "doesn't care" and as long as your copy
of XP is leagel, this seems to be a very viable option.

I am quite sure that we will see VMWare on Intel Mac very soon as well.

Matthias

"larwe" <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1143600439.859026.47360@i40g2000cwc.googlegro ups.com...
<snip OS stuff>
Segger's J-Link is about $400 or so and comes with a TCP/IP server app. You
could have a Windows drone purely for JTAG and network to that with it
firewalled up to the hilt to allow only access to the JTAG probe. That would
cost a lot less than $2K and certainly supports all the ARMs, don't know
about the PPC support though.

larwe <zwsdotcom@gmail.com> wrote:

Have you tried OpenOCD (<http://openocd.berlios.de/web/>)? It works with
FTDI FT2232-based interfaces, such as Amontec's JTAGkey and should build
out of the box or with minimal modifications on OS X.

-a

Roberto Waltman <usenet@rwaltman.com> writes:
The preceding sounds like the thing I saw where someone
was decrying the good ol' days where one could start a
compilation and go have supper while it completed. He
came up with something involving a 6502 emulation that
would degrade performance sufficiently to get back to
the more relaxed pace of earlier times.