The NetBSD Toaster

kv9 writes "Finally after many, many yeas of running on everything-but-your-toaster NetBSD is there too. Technologic Systems has made a toaster that is controlled by NetBSD and powered by one of their ARM boards, the TS-7200. Everything is controlled through sysctl, there are LEDs that show you what is going on, the toaster can play MP3s while it fries the bread and even has Apache/PHP installed. More information in the press release [pdf warning] and on this running NetBSD on the TS-7200 page."

The World Needs More Toast Tech

[bloodmusic]

I'd like to see this extended to a combined toaster/jelly-jet printer. Delicious toast printed to order with the image of your choice. Of course it would require a bread feeder that could do cut slice or continuous loaf.

Re:Myth

[nacturation]

From the writeup:

"Comparing that list to the list of NetBSD ports it is now evident that Linux has been ported to more platforms than NetBSD.

[...]

Which just goes to show how flexible Linux is..."

Um, no it doesn't go to show that there are more ports because of its flexibility. No doubt Linux is flexible, but so is NetBSD (some have argued more so). The reason that Linux has more ports is because there are more people doing porting.
 

Re:Myth

[Just Some Guy]

They [tldp.org] both [netbsd.org] list quite a few ports, but the trick is in deciding which list is actually longer. If you count complete hardware platforms, then it looks like NetBSD might take the lead since, in my opinion, just booting the Linux kernel doesn't really qualify as "running Linux". That's a point that has to be decided, though. On the other hand, if you count CPU architectures instead, then Linux might be ahead. That depends on how loosely you aggregate similar chips - for example, is "Intel IA32-compatibles (Cyrix MediaGX, STMicroelectronics STPC, ZF Micro ZFx86)", listed under "Diverse PDA / embedded / microcontroller / router devices", really different than "Intel IA32 family"?

My point is that it's not entirely clear which OS supports more platforms, since "supports" and "platforms" are both variables that would need to be nailed down before the conversation even begins. My own first impression is that NetBSD is still the winner, since you can actually boot into each of its listed platforms, install software from pkgsrc, and generally treat them as equals except for the obvious performance differences. Others could effectively argue the opposite, I'm sure.

Re:Yeah, but...

[wf_john]

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. He showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob, and a lever. What do you think this is?" he asked. One advisor, an engineer, answered first. "It is a toaster," he said. The king asked, "How would you design an embedded computer for it?" The engineer replied, "Using a 4-bit microcontroller, I would write a simple program that reads the darkness knob and quantizes its position to one of 16 shades of darkness, from white to black. The program would use that darkness level as the index to a 16 element table of initial timer values. Then it would turn on the heating elements and start the timer with the initial value selected from the table. At the end of the time delay, it would turn off the heat and pop up the toast. By next week, I can show you a working prototype." The second advisor, a computer scientist, immediately recognized the danger of such short-sighted thinking. He said, "Toasters don't just turn bread into toast, they are also used to warm frozen waffles. What you see before you is really a breakfast food cooker. As the subjects of your kingdom become more sophisticated, they will demand morecapabilities. They will need a breakfast food cooker that can also cook sausage, fry bacon, and make scrambled eggs. A toaster that only makes toast will soon be obsolete. If we don't look to the future, we will have to completely redesign the toaster in just a few years." "With this in mind, we can formulate a more intelligent solution to the problem. First, create a class of breakfast foods. Specialize this class into subclasses: grains, pork, and poultry. The specialization process should be repeated with grains divided into toast, muffins, pancakes, and waffles; pork divided into sausage, links, and bacon; and poultry divided into scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs, and various omelet classes." "The ham and cheese omelet class is worth special attention because it must inherit characteristics from the pork, dairy, and poultry classes. Thus, we see that the problem cannot be properly solved without multiple inheritance. At run time, the program must create the proper object and send a message to the object that says, 'Cook yourself.' The semantics of this message depend, of course, on the kind of object, so they have a different meaning to a piece of toast than to scrambled eggs." "Reviewing the process so far, we see that the analysis phase has revealed that the primary requirement is to cook any kind of breakfast food. In the design phase, we have discovered some derived requirements. Specifically, we need an object-oriented language with multiple inheritance. Of course, users don't want the eggs to get cold while the bacon is frying, so concurrent processing is required, too." "We must not forget the user interface. The lever that lowers the food lacks versatility, and the darkness knob is confusing. Users won't buy the product unless it has a user-friendly, graphical interface. When the breakfast cooker is plugged in, users should see a cowboy boot on the screen. Users click on it, and the message 'Booting UNIX v. 8.3' appears on the screen. (UNIX 8.3 should be out by the time the product gets to the market.) Users can pull down a menu and click on the foods they want to cook." "Having made the wise decision of specifying the software first in the design phase, all that remains is to pick an adequate hardware platform for the implementation phase. A 1 GHz Intel Pentium IV with 256 MB of memory, a 6 GB hard disk, and a Flat Panel monitor should be sufficient. If you select a multi-tasking, object-oriented language that supports multiple inheritance and has a built-in GUI, writing the program will be a snap. Imagine the difficulty we would have had if we had foolishly allowed a hardware-first design strategy to lock us into a 4-bit microcontroller!" The king wisely had the computer scientist beheaded, and they all lived happily ever after.