ECOS Re: ecos on ARM

[Bart Veer <bartv@cygnus.co.uk>]

>>>>> "Mohan" == Mohan Pakkurti <pakku@mediaone.net> writes:

    Mohan> At 08:59 PM 11/9/98 +0000, Bart Veer wrote:
    >>
    >>> Can anyone comment on the plans for porting ecos to ARM7 or
    >>> StrongARM?
    >>  All I can say at this stage is that ARM are well aware of eCos
    >> and have endorsed the technology. I am not able to say what
    >> this may or may not mean in terms of a port possibly becoming
    >> available at some indeterminate time in the future. Cygnus is
    >> in discussion with many silicon vendors about certified ports
    >> to various processors, and unfortunately these discussions
    >> generally involve non-disclosure agreements.

    Mohan> When you say NDA, does the NDA involve not disclosing what
    Mohan> processors are being worked on currently? Then if someone
    Mohan> took the initiative to go ahead do a port themselves, would
    Mohan> they be wasting their time, if suddenly half way through
    Mohan> the porting effort, the "official" suport for that
    Mohan> processor was announced!?!

Theoretically this is possible. Of course this does not apply just to
processor ports, it applies to other projects as well. For example,
two people might be working on something like a deadline scheduler at
the same time, and whichever person does not make the first public
announcement is going to be a bit unhappy.

The best way to avoid this sort of thing is to announce projects
before coding effort starts, either in the ecos-discuss list or by
mailing ecos-maintainers@cygnus.com if people prefer to keep their
work a bit more confidential for the time being. That way we can keep
track of the various projects that are happening, and usually warn
people if they are about to duplicate effort. Depending on the
circumstances these warnings may be public postings or private emails. 

This applies to Cygnus' internal development effort just as much as to
outside projects. If we are about to start work on e.g. a new port
then whenever possible we will announce this before work starts.
Occasionally this will not be possible because of various contractual
and commercial reasons - it is an imperfect universe - but we will do
our best to avoid people wasting their time.

Bart Veer // eCos net maintainer