Embedded Linux Conference Europe

It's possible to build Linux for tiny devices without MMUs through to enormous multi-core servers. But is there anything remotely similar about the resulting systems? Is it sane to run Linux on a micro-controller? This talk will compare the anatomy of a uClinux/noMMU system to 'normal' ones, specifically looking at the difference between Linux running on Cortex A, R and M-class cores (M-class support has recently arrived in mainline!). Areas covered will include: notable missing kernel features (eg fork()!), binary format support, shared libraries, multitasking and security, as well as some of the implications to userspace of these differences. It will also cover some of the possible improvements to the way Linux uses features of R/M class cores, hopefully provoking some discussion on, for example, how to make better use of the Memory Protection Unit (supported in 3.11).