embedded python?

[Alexander May]

Hi,

I love Python!  I've been using it for a couple of years now and have found
it to be a highly productive language.  I evangelize it to my developer
friends and am probably responsible for the sale of at least 10 Alex
Martelli books.  I am now in the fortunate position of being able to use
Python for a large project, and as such I have a question.

We are developing a distributed application running on approximately six
thousand nodes with somewhat limited hardware resources.  Our hardware
target is 66 MHz ARM style processor with 16 Mb ram.  We haven't selected
specific hardware yet; the hardware target is what we are trying to fit into
based on price constraints.  Each device needs to be able to handle about 2
kbs (yes kilo, not mega) worth of network traffic.

I intend to a least prototype the system in Python.  It would be great if we
could we could use Python in production by embedding it in the hardware.  My
question is does anyone have any real world experience using python in an
embedded system?  Two general categories of questions:

1) Are there any embedded Pythons out there?  The nodes will likely be
running some form of Linux, but I don't particularly feel like devoting
resrouces to porting python.  Any embedded Linuxes supporting Python?
Thoughts in general?

2) What are the resource requirements of Python?  How much overhead do the
network related modules add?  Obviously I'll be able to determine our
application's resource usage once the prototype is written, but I curious
about other people's past experience.

In short, is embedding python realistic?

Thoughts and comments are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Alex