[talk] NYC*BUG Tonight: RetroBSD & LiteBSD

[George Rosamond]

July 6
Meet the Smallest BSDs: RetroBSD and LiteBSD, Brian Callahan
18:45, Stone Creek Bar & Lounge: 140 E 27th St

Abstract

We all expect *BSD to run on our personal computers and servers. What
you may not know is that the last five years have seen a successful
experiment to bring *BSD to the PIC32 microcontrollers. There are now
two different full *BSD operating systems for these microcontrollers:
RetroBSD, a port of 2.11BSD, and LiteBSD, based on 4.4BSD-Lite2.

This talk introduces the two smallest BSDs, the differences between
them, what hardware you need (with hands-on demos), and how to get
involved. We'll overview what works, what doesn't, the challenges of
writing a complete operating system with extremely small RAM limits in
the modern era, and how to incorporate *BSD on the microcontroller into
your *BSD universe.

Speaker Bio

Brian is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Science and Technology
Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research explores how
underserved groups vie for legitimacy and normalcy in the IT sector
through diversity and other initiatives. He is an ex-OpenBSD developer
who used to do a lot of work on ports but now advocates for a
BSD-agnostic approach.