RE: [avr-gcc-list] Re: TinyOs avr-gcc-4 - a wrap-up

[Eric Weddington]

> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden
> org] On Behalf Of Gre7g Luterman
> Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:57 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: [avr-gcc-list] Re: TinyOs avr-gcc-4 - a wrap-up
>
> --- David Gay <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > Another variation on this approach is building a
> > "kernel" in
> > nesC/TinyOS, which has a nice C interface for
> > application-level
> > programs. I believe several people are looking into
> > doing something
> > like this.
>
> Well, not to detract from this spirited discussion,
> but using a kernel approach doesn't really solve the
> question at hand, does it?  The problem is that TinyOS
> is written in nesC and no one has ported nesC to AVR.

That is incorrect.

> As a passive observer of this thread, it sounds like
> the answer for the original poster is, "No, you cannot
> run TinyOS on AVR and there is no plan on the horizon
> to make it so it can."

Again, also incorrect.

Please go to the relevant projects to get an overview. IIRC, NesC is
available on SourceForge and see also tinyos.net.

The NesC "compiler" compiles a NesC program (which is a superset of C) into
C, which is then run through the relevant GCC C compiler according to your
target. Targets available are the AVR and MSP430 (that I know of, there may
be more).

TinyOS is an OS geared towards sensor networks and their communications
stacks (that interface with various radio chips), and is written in NesC.
Typically the sensor network implements the IEEE 802.15.4 (MAC + PHY)
protocol standard for low power networks.

Atmel is interested in all of this because it is common to see AVRs as the
processor on these sensor network "motes" (boards), as well as we have a
very competitive radio, the AT86RF230, that implements 802.15.4.

Eric Weddington