Q: Adding WDT support.

[qqi at world.std.com (Quality Quorum)]

On Fri, 30 Jul 1999, erik.ivanenko wrote:

> I have the pc386 BSP running on an ACER PIA-632.  This uses a 386sx-40
> clone chip.  It is an embeddable device, that sits in an ISA backplane,
> and has floppy and hd controller ports among other things.  It uses the
> AMI bios, and is completely PC compatible ( as far as I can tell ).
> 
> It does however, include a watchdog timer ( WDT ) , which makes it
> different from a PC.  The WDT
> is supposed to be initialized at the beginning of the application code
> proper, and reset periodically during the application. It is required
> ONLY by the application.
> 
> My question is:
> 
> Where should I locate the WDT control source code?  It does not belong
> in the pc386 BSP, as the existence of the WDT is specific to the
> acer-pia-632.  It seems silly to copy the pc386 BSP code just to make
> another BSP that includes the WDT control library -- as applications may
> not even use the WDT!
> 
> Should a new BSP be created, or should  the optional WDT control library
> be included with pc386?

I see two options: either make it a part of (supposedly new) BSP (1) or
make it into some sort of app library(2).

I favor option (2): once we would start to put junk into BSP proper
code we wll never stop and it will soon become unmantainable.

I propose to create directory say 'collection' under libbsp/i386, 
where one can put processor specific application code, which is 
not compiled automatically but can be copied into application space
as desired.

Thanks,

Aleksey