/*
    ChibiOS/RT - Copyright (C) 2006,2007,2008,2009,2010 Giovanni Di Sirio.

    This file is part of ChibiOS/RT.

    ChibiOS/RT is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    ChibiOS/RT is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/

/**
 * @page target Application Range
 * @brief ChibiOS/RT Application Range.
 * - @ref applications
 * - @ref min_requirements
 * - @ref desirable_features
 * - @ref upper_limit
 * .
 * @section applications Application Scenarios
 * ChibiOS/RT is usable in many applicative areas, as example and not limited
 * to:
 * - Automotive.
 * - Robotic Applications.
 * - Consumer Electronics.
 * - Energy Management.
 * - Teaching and Learning.
 * - Hobby.
 * .
 * @section min_requirements Absolute Minimum Requirements
 * A certain set of minimum system requirements must be satisfied in order to
 * use ChibiOS/RT on a new architecture:
 * - 8bits architecture minimum.
 * - A "real" stack pointer that can be positioned anywhere in the data address
 *   space. The OS could be ported to architectures with an hardware stack but
 *   I wouldn't recommend it because the context switch would become
 *   ridiculously inefficient.
 * - Support for maskable interrupt sources and at least an OS-dedicated timer.
 * - Support for standard C89 (C99 supported) language with no
 *   architecture-related non-standard restrictions. Non standard mandatory
 *   language extensions or restrictions may result in reduced functionality
 *   or impossibility of use.
 * - 256/512bytes RAM permanently allocated to the kernel and its two mandatory
 *   threads "idle" and "main", the exact amount depends on the architecture.
 *   This figure is not inclusive of the HAL and device drivers (non mandatory
 *   components).
 * - 8KiB of program space for a full featured kernel scalable down to about
 *   1.2KiB for reduced configurations. This figure is not inclusive of the
 *   HAL and device drivers (non mandatory components).
 * .
 * @section desirable_features Desirable Features
 * - Efficient instruction set for linked lists traversal. The kernel makes
 *   extensive use of simple and bidirectional linked lists so the performance
 *   is directly affected by the suported addressing modes, number of registers
 *   etc.
 * - Uniformly sized C pointers.
 * - 2KiB RAM.
 * - 16KiB ROM/Flash.
 * .
 * @section upper_limit Upper Recommended Limit
 * The application range of ChibiOS/RT ends when one or more of the following
 * features are required:
 * - Separation between user code space and kernel space, both just logical or
 *   using a Memory Management/Protection Unit. Applications in ChibiOS/RT are
 *   supposed to be monolithic and trusted. The kernel and the application
 *   share the same address space.
 * - Multiple applications. ChibiOS/RT supports the single multithreaded
 *   application model.
 * - Multicore SMP architectures. Currently ChibiOS/RT only supports a single
 *   core unless running multiple distinct and separate OS instances.
 *   A true multicore kernel is planned for when multicore MCUs will become
 *   commonly available.
 * .
 */