What should be considered when choosing an RTOS/real time operating systems?
Responsiveness: The RTOS scheduling algorithm, interrupt latency and context switch times will significantly define the responsiveness and determinism of the system. The most important consideration is what type of response is desired - Is a hard real time response required? This means that there are precisely defined deadlines that, if not met, will cause the system to fail. Alternatively, would a non-deterministic, soft real time response be appropriate? In which case there are no guarantees as to when each task will complete.
Available system resources: Micro kernels use minimum system resources and provide limited but essential task scheduling functionality. Micro kernels generally deliver a hard real time response, and are used extensively with embedded microprocessors with limited RAM/ROM capacity, but can also be appropriate for larger embedded processor systems.
Alternatively, a full featured OS like Linux or WinCE could be used. These provide a feature rich operating system environment, normally supplied with drivers, GUI’s and middleware components. Full featured OS’s are generally less responsive, require more memory and more processing power than micro kernels, and are mainly used on powerful embedded processors where system resources are plentiful.
Open source or professionally licensed: There are widely used, free open source RTOS’s available, distributed under GPL or modified GPL licenses. However, these licenses may contain copy left restrictions and offer little protection. Professionally licensed RTOS products remove the copy left restrictions, offer full IP infringement indemnification and warranties. In addition, you have a single company providing support and taking responsibility for the quality of your product.
Quality: What emphasis does the RTOS supplier place on quality within their organisation? Quality is more than just a coding standard. Are the correct procedures in place to guarantee the quality of future products and support? Well-managed companies that take quality seriously tend to be ISO 9001 certified.
Safety Certification: Pre-certified and certifiable RTOS’s are available for applications that require certification to international design standards such as DO-178C and IEC 61508. These RTOS’s provide key safety features, and the design evidence required by certification bodies to confirm that the process used to develop the RTOS meets the relevant design standard.
Licensing: It’s not only the RTOS functionality and features that you’ll need to consider, but the licensing model that will work best for your project budget and the company’s “return on investment”.
RTOS Vendor: The company behind the RTOS is just as important as selecting the correct RTOS itself. Ideally you want to build a relationship with a supplier that can support not only your current product, but also your products of the future. To do this you need to select a proactive supplier with a good reputation, working with leading silicon manufacturers to ensure they can support the newest processors and tools.
Trust, quality of product, and quality of support is everything.
Available system resources: Micro kernels use minimum system resources and provide limited but essential task scheduling functionality. Micro kernels generally deliver a hard real time response, and are used extensively with embedded microprocessors with limited RAM/ROM capacity, but can also be appropriate for larger embedded processor systems.
Alternatively, a full featured OS like Linux or WinCE could be used. These provide a feature rich operating system environment, normally supplied with drivers, GUI’s and middleware components. Full featured OS’s are generally less responsive, require more memory and more processing power than micro kernels, and are mainly used on powerful embedded processors where system resources are plentiful.
Open source or professionally licensed: There are widely used, free open source RTOS’s available, distributed under GPL or modified GPL licenses. However, these licenses may contain copy left restrictions and offer little protection. Professionally licensed RTOS products remove the copy left restrictions, offer full IP infringement indemnification and warranties. In addition, you have a single company providing support and taking responsibility for the quality of your product.
Quality: What emphasis does the RTOS supplier place on quality within their organisation? Quality is more than just a coding standard. Are the correct procedures in place to guarantee the quality of future products and support? Well-managed companies that take quality seriously tend to be ISO 9001 certified.
Safety Certification: Pre-certified and certifiable RTOS’s are available for applications that require certification to international design standards such as DO-178C and IEC 61508. These RTOS’s provide key safety features, and the design evidence required by certification bodies to confirm that the process used to develop the RTOS meets the relevant design standard.
Licensing: It’s not only the RTOS functionality and features that you’ll need to consider, but the licensing model that will work best for your project budget and the company’s “return on investment”.
RTOS Vendor: The company behind the RTOS is just as important as selecting the correct RTOS itself. Ideally you want to build a relationship with a supplier that can support not only your current product, but also your products of the future. To do this you need to select a proactive supplier with a good reputation, working with leading silicon manufacturers to ensure they can support the newest processors and tools.
Trust, quality of product, and quality of support is everything.
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