Mini ITX

[neowert]

Are mini itx systems suitable for OS dev?

[Pype.Clicker]

[url=http://www.mini-itx.com/hardware/intro.asp"]
what is mini itx ??
[/url]

Well, as they seem to be generic-PC, you should be able to develop an OS for them. Now, they'll probably not need the same kind of OS as a desktop PC, looking at the kind of applications they're used in ...

And they'll probably have very custom hardware controller (as everything is in the chipset).

[neowert]

Well, they are suitable for a desktop pc. My convern is the C3 processor, which I know nothing about. I am sure they have standard hardware driver wise, as linux will run on them. Basically, I will be travelling a lot an I need a portable pc, and I cant afford a laptop. Plus I want to put a NE2000 nic in there. Anyone know anything about the Via C3? I read somewhere that either Via or Transmeta makes an x86 clone that is not perfect, and cant run java properly.

[Pype.Clicker]

you should be able to download the datasheet from http://www.sandpile.org/docs/centaur.htm (which also has datasheet for most x86 clone, as it appears ...)

The C3 looks to be very close to another x86 clone .. i fear what you heard was marketting rumours or something ...
all i can find that worth to be noted is

Omitted functions.

Some Intel Celeron processor functions are not provided on the VIA C3 Samuel 2 processor because they aren t used or aren t needed in the targeted PC systems. Examples are some specific bus functions such as functional redundancy checking and performance monitoring. Other examples are architectural extensions such as support for 4-MByte pages, Page Attribute Tables, etc. These types of differences are similar to those among various versions of the processors. The CPUID instruction is used by system software to determine whether these features are supported.

[RuneOfFire]

...I read somewhere that either Via or Transmeta makes an x86 clone that is not perfect, and cant run java properly.

It should run fine. Java is interpreted by the Java VM (a program, for those who don't know), which translates Java bytecode to native machine code. The processor really only runs the machine instructions, which will be the same on all x86 compatibles. The only thing that could be a problem is if the Java VM is outputting instructions which require certain processor features, which may not be supported by the processor. The VM really shouldn't be doing that anyway, and if it does, it's solely the VM's fault.

[Pype.Clicker]

where another problem could arise is how the processor support execution of code which the running code could modify (i.e. something like flushing the instruction cache and the prefetch queue)