Tutorial CubeOS

CubeOS - the tutorialHolger Kenn, VUB AI Labpublic draft version 0.1this document covers CubeOS version 0.4.10 and nPDL version 0.0.41Chapter 1IntroductionOperating systems for embedded systems are different from their counterparts for desktops orservers in many ways. First of all, the embedded system usually does not have the resourcesto run editors, compilers, linkers and so on. Therefore, program development uses a differentcomputer, often called the host system. The embedded system which is supposed to run theprogram is then called the target For CubeOS , the target system is the RoboCube,the host system is a UNIX computer. The host system uses it’s standard means of programdevelopment (Editors, make etc.) with one important exception: It uses a cross-compiler togenerate target code. In the case of CubeOS , this is the Gnu C Compiler configured for them68k-coff target. “m68k denotes the cpu architecture, in this case the Motorola 68xxx family,“coff is the binary output format of the compiler, the common object file format.Unlike in a desktop computer, there is no permanent copy of the operating system in the tar-get. The target only has a small program that enables the user to download compiled codeto the target and executing it there. This program is usually called monitor. A monitor alsohas other functions like inspecting memory or testing hardware. CubeMon is the ofthe RoboCube and uses communicate with the monitor over a serial interface and a ...