newRPL: [UPDATED April 27-2017] Firmware for testing available for download

[Claudio L.]

(11-12-2016 12:45 AM)Han Wrote:  Another question of curiosity:

Is there any intention in keeping the firmware size to any particular maximum (e.g. 2MB)? I understand that once SD support is finalized, then we can simply run programs from the SD card. So maybe the firmware could take up all of the flash chip. However, I am curious if you (Claudio) foresee the flash ROM size becoming an obstacle in the future.

ROM will be limited to 2MB on the 50g target, just because that's the physical limit. Even if we implement a VMM (Virtual Memory Manager) to use the SD card as a RAM extension, that doesn't apply to the ROM. We could map a portion of RAM right after the ROM as well to make it appear larger, but it will use up RAM to temporarily hold the pages so it's probably not a good idea.
In any case I don't see the 2MB limit as being an issue (yet). The firmware with core libraries was 1.4MB just because 1 MB is taken by the tables for transcendental functions. Right now with more than a third of the commands implemented we are at 1.6 MB. If the 2MB limit becomes a problem, I'll have to use different methods to compute the transcendental functions that use less storage, that's it.