Index Real-Time Magazine 3Q97
Editorial
By Martin Timmerman, Chief-Editor of Real-Time Magazine,
Real-Time Consult.
RTOS UPDATE PART II - 97/3 - p. 3
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| VRTX |
VRTX Evaluation
This article is the first product evaluation to be launched
in Real-Time Magazine. It presents the evaluation of VRTX as well as the
evaluation methodology. For a RTOS, we evaluate the ease of installation
and configuration, the kernel and BSP richness, the kernel and standard
driver's performances and the user friendliness of the whole product and
documentation. At the end we give our conclusion about the RTOS and explain
for what type of application it is suitable.
By Dr. ir. Martin Timmerman, Managing Director, Jean-Christophe
Monfret, Project Manager, Real-Time Consult
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.6
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Designing for Worst Case: The Impact of RTOS Performance on Real-World
Embedded Design
The engineer who designs and develops real-time embedded
software must become adept at a sophisticated juggling act. On one hand,
today's embedded systems include more functionality than ever before: elaborate
graphical user interfaces, network connectivity, and interprocessor communication.
On the other hand, the same time constraints still prevail. Embedded systems
must interact predictably with devices in the outside world. They generally
operate unattended, and the consequences of any kind of failure range from
severe to unthinkable. In response to these competing pressures, use of
off-the-shelf system software in real-time applications has increased dramatically.
Vendors such as Microtec offer proven software that can be used in a real-time
embedded system, improving the functionality and robustness of the design.
This article will explore the relationship between the timing requirements
of real-world applications and the performance metrics typically published
by real-time operating system (RTOS) suppliers. It will also present some
data on the actual response times of leading commercial products, including
VRTXsa and VRTX32, high performance general purpose kernels offered by
Microtec . VRTXsa comprises the most recent advances in kernel technology
and is the successor to the second generation of the VRTX family, VRTX32.
By James F. Ready, Vice-President, Microtec Research
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.52
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| PSOSYSTEM |
pSOSystem for Integrated Systems
pSOSystem Software has been used for many years as a
run-time and development environment for real-time embedded applications.
This article describes the new components that add better communication
capabilities including network protocols, HTTP Server and CORBA.
By John Hogan, Director, Integrated Systems Inc.
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.14
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| OSE |
High Availability Provided in Software Using Supervised Logical
Channels
Using Supervised Logical Channels leads to embedded and
real-time application that are more robust regarding to failures and upgrades
of hardware and software thus achieving higher performance, lower costs
and providing better runtime maintance. The term "High Availability" used
more and more, is the characteristic of such a system.
By William J. McCombie, Manager of International Operations,
Enea OSE Systems
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.16
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| NEVOS |
NevOS - The Scalable Real-Time OS for Embedded and Distributed Systems
More and more companies are using a Real-Time Operating
System (RTOS) to execute RT tasks. There is no RTOS that would be appropriate
for any RT task. Every RTOS will suit only some classes of RT systems that
should be defined for it at the development stage as well as at considering
its application in a RT system project. The architecture of a RTOS, such
feature as scaleability influence a lot to the RTOS characteristics and
application domains.The paper considers how the multilayered structure
of the NevOS - a distributed RTOS, designed according to the proposed distributed
RTOS modular architecture, makes it suitable both for small embedded systems
and for large distributed systems.
By Tatiana Aladovais, Dmitriy Mikhailichenko, Natalia
Nedselskaya, Yuriy Sheinin, Microprocessing Technologies
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.23
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| SOFTKERNEL |
SoftKernel: Why a Real-Time Executive Must Be "Object Inside"
SoftKernel is a new OS developed to be totally Object
Oriented. It not gives only a new way of thinking about the functionality
of the OS, but gives a whole new dimension to the configuration and also
to the programming of the OS.
By Bernard Dautrevaux, Philippe Piovesan, Microprocessing
Ingenerie
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.29
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| TORNADO |
Tornado: Real-Time’s Connection to the Network
Network development makes it possible for a engineers
to acces the development target with only one link to it. But when working
with resource limitated targets not supporting full networked development,
it can get hard to a team to provide runtime maintenance of embedded applications.
Tornado development environment from Wind River Systems provides a solution
by using the advantages of network development without loading the target
with a full network stack.
By Claude Garcia, Technical Marketing Engineer, Wind
River Systems.
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.39
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| MAKE-BUY |
How to Write an RTOS - A Guide for Anyone Pondering The "Make-or-Buy"
Decision
This article considers four of the most frequently asked
questions about RTOS. Firstly, it tries to answer the problem of performance
versus code size and portability. Secondly, it deals with the problem of
testing and verifying the RTOS and the application. Thirdly, it deals with
the problem of characterising the performance of a given RTOS. Finally,
it presents the problem of tools interoperability (a RTOS alone is almost
of no use).
By Tom Barrett, President, Embedded System Products,
Inc.
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.43
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| TECHNOLOGY |
Preemption Treshold
More and more of today's embedded real-time applications
use multithreading. The benefits of multithreading are clear and include
improved responsiveness, greater throughput, and ease of development and
maintenance. However, there are also costs and pitfalls associated with
multithreading. The new preemption-threshold technology found in ThreadX
helps eliminate some of these pitfalls.
By Bill Lamie, Embedded software engineer, Express
Logic.
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.46
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| MISSION - CRITICAL |
RTOS Target Mission-Critical Embedded Systems
Today's mission-critical embedded systems require modern
approaches to RTOS design. These approaches include trap mechanisms, limited
re-entrancy and the use of MMUs amongst others. This article introduces
Integrity, a mission-critical RTOS, and mentions points that will help
all real-time programmers design systems that take full advantage of current
technology.
By Don O’Dowd, President, Green Hills Software
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.48
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| µITRON |
µITRON: A Standard RT Kernel Specification for Small-Scale
Embedded Systems
The µITRON is a standard real-time kernel specification
for use in small-scale embedded control systems. This specification has
been implemented for a large number of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit microcontroller
units (MCUs). Counting only commercial products,about 40 implementations
have been reported. Moreover, ITRON-specification kernels have been adopted
in countless embedded systems, giving the specification the stature of
an industrystandard in this field in Japan.
By Hiroaki Takada, Research Associate, University of
Tokio
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.57
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| OSEK/VDX |
Standardization of an Open Platform for Distributed Automotive RT
Systems OSEK/VDX
OSEK/VDX is a joint project of the automotive industry.
It aims at an industry standard for an open-ended architecture for distributed
control units in vehicles. This paper briefly summarises the current state
of OSEK/VDX.
By Uwe Kiencke, Ansgar Maisch, Karl Joachim Neumann,
University of Karlsruhe
RTOS UPDATE PART II
- 97q3 - p.64
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| OTHERS |
Advertisement Index
RTOS UPDATE (2) - 97q3 - p.22
OMI
Hardware Goes Soft! Or is it Software Goes Hard? The Emerging IP Business.
RTOS UPDATE (2) - 97q3 - p.74
Agenda
RTOS UPDATE (2) - 97q3 - p.76
RTOS Buyer's Guide
RTOS UPDATE (2) - 97q3 - p.79
Company Directory - RTOS
RTOS UPDATE (2) - 97q3 - p.98
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CONTENTS TABLE
EDITORIAL
VRTX
PSOSYSTEM
OSE
NEVOS
SOFTKERNEL
TORNADO
MAKE-BUY
TECHNOLOGY
MISSION - CRITICAL
µITRON
OSEK/VDX
OTHERS
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