 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
High-performance microkernel design
At the heart of the VxWorks run-time system is the highly efficient wind microkernel. This microkernel supports a full range of real-time features including fast multitasking, interrupt support, and both preemptive and round-robin scheduling. The microkernel design minimizes system overhead and enables fast, deterministic response to external events.
The run-time environment also provides efficient intertask communication mechanisms, permitting independent tasks to coordinate their actions within a real-time system. The developer may design applications using shared memory (for simple sharing of data), message queues and pipes (for intertask messaging within a CPU), sockets and remote procedure calls (for network-transparent communication), and signals (for exception handling). For controlling critical system resources, several types of semaphores are provided – binary, counting, and mutual exclusion with priority inheritance.
Scalable run-time software
VxWorks is designed for scalability, enabling developers to allocate scarce memory resources to their application, rather than to the operating system. From deeply embedded designs requiring a few kilobytes of memory, to complex high-end real-time systems where more operating system functions are needed, the developer may choose from over 100 different options to create hundreds of configurations. Individual modules may be used in development and omitted in production systems.
Furthermore, these individual subsystems are themselves scalable, allowing the developer to optimally configure VxWorks run-time software for the widest range of applications. For example, individual functions may be removed from the ANSI C run-time library, or specific kernel synchronization objects may be omitted if they are not required by the application. Also, TCP, UDP, sockets, and standard Berkeley network services can all be scaled in or out of the networking stack as necessary.
These configuration options can be easily selected by means of the Tornado II project facility's graphical interface. Developers can also use Tornado II´s autoscaling feature, which automatically analyzes application code and incorporates the appropriate options.
Return to top
Comprehensive networking facilities
VxWorks was the first real-time operating system to integrate industry-standard TCP/IP networking facilities optimized for real-time applications. This tradition of innovation continues with the VxWorks TCP/IP stack, which supports the latest Berkeley networking features, including: |
|
|
- IP, IGMP, CIDR, TCP, UDP, ARP
- RIP v.1/v.2
- Standard Berkeley sockets and zbufs (a.k.a., zero-copy sockets)
- NFS client and server, ONC RPC
- Point-to-point protocol (PPP)
- BOOTP, DNS, DHCP, TFTP
- FTP, rlogin, telnet, rsh
|
|
|
|
Wind River also supports optional WindNet™ products: SNMP v.1/v.2c, OSPF v.2, and STREAMS.
Wind River augments these core technologies with the industry´s most extensive networking development environment, available through the WindLink for Tornado Partner Program. Sophisticated networking solutions include ATM, SMDS, frame relay, ISDN, SS7, X.25, and V5 wide-area network protocols; IPX/SPX, AppleTalk, and SNA local area network protocols; RMON, CMIP/GDMO and Web-based solutions for distributed network management; and CORBA for distributed computing environments.
POSIX 1003.1b compliance
VxWorks supports the POSIX 1003.1b specification and basic system calls in the 1003.1 specification, including process primitives, files and directories, I/O primitives, language services, and directory handling. In addition, VxWorks adheres to the final approved standard for POSIX 1003.1b Real-Time Extensions, including POSIX-compliant asynchronous I/O, counting semaphores, message queues, signals, memory management (page locking), and scheduling control.
Return to top
Choice of platform
Wind River offers off-the-shelf turnkey integration with an extensive set of commercial and evaluation boards. VxWorks´ open design is highly portable and complete across all supported processors, allowing application migration between architectures with minimal effort.
Easy porting to custom hardware
The ability to port operating systems and existing applications in a timely manner is key to the success of embedded software development teams. This process is easier if the application code and operating system are designed with portability in mind. This requires a distinct separation of low-level, hardware-dependent code from higher-level application or operating system code. Thus porting of only the underlying hardware-dependent code is required to port an entire design; operating system and application layers need not be modified.
This hardware-dependent layer is called the board support package (BSP). A BSP is required for any target board that executes VxWorks. The BSP Developer´s Kit enables developers to easily use VxWorks with custom hardware; for developers using commercial hardware, over 200 BSPs are available. When developing a BSP for a custom board, developers can choose from a vast array of standard device drivers, which are provided for all target architectures.
Operating system accessories
Accessory products are available to give developers access to an unprecedented range of features and to extend the VxWorks platform. These include the BSP Developer´s Kit, support for flash file systems with TrueFFS for Tornado, support for graphics applications, virtual memory management with VxVMI,™ multiprocessing with VxMP,™ and distributed multiprocessing with VxFusion.™ |
|
|
|
Return to top |
|
|
|
Features |
|
|
|
wind microkernel |
|
|
|
- Efficient task management
|
|
|
- multitasking, unlimited number of tasks
- preemptive and round-robin scheduling
- fast, deterministic context switching
- 256 priority levels
|
|
|
- Fast, flexible intertask communications
|
|
|
- binary, counting, and mutual exclusion semaphores with priority inheritance
- message queues
- POSIX pipes, counting semaphores, message queues, signals and scheduling
- control sockets
- shared memory
|
|
|
- High scalability
- Incremental linking and loading of components
- Fast, efficient interrupt and exception handling
- Optimized floating-point support
- Dynamic memory management
- System clock and timing facilities
|
|
|
|
Networking support |
|
|
|
- BSD 4.4 TCP/IP networking
- IP, IGMP, CIDR, TCP, UDP, ARP
- RIP v.1/v.2
- Standard Berkeley sockets, zbufs (a.k.a., zero-copy sockets)
- SLIP, CSLIP, PPP
- BOOTP, DNS, DHCP, TFTP
- NFS, ONC RPC
- FTP, rlogin, rsh, telnet
- SNTP
- WindNet SNMP v.1/v.2c with MIB compiler – optional
- WindNet OSPF v.2 – optional
- WindNet STREAMS SVR4 – optional
|
|
|
|
Fast, flexible I/O and local file system |
|
|
|
- POSIX asynchronous I/O and directory handling
- SCSI support
- MS-DOS compatible file system
- Raw disk file system
- TrueFFS flash file system – optional
- ISO 9660 CD-ROM file system
- PCMCIA support
|
|
|
|
Target development features |
|
|
|
- Full ANSI C compliance and enhanced C++ features for exception handling and template support
- Extensive POSIX 1003.1, .1b compatibility
- Interactive C interpreter target shell
- Symbolic debugging and disassembly
- Powerful performance monitoring
- Extensive kernel, task, and system information utilities
- Dynamic linking loader
- Libraries of over 1800 utility routines
- Flexible booting from ROM, local disk, or over the network
- Highly scalable design allows for wide range of applications
- System-level debugging via Ethernet, serial line, ICE, or ROM emulator
|
|
|
|
Supported VxWorks 5.x targets* |
|
|
|
- PowerPC
- 68K, CPU 32
- ColdFire
- MCORE
- 80x86 and Pentium
- i960
- ARM and StrongARM
- MIPS
- SH
- SPARC
- NEC V8xx
- M32 R/D
- RAD6000
- ST 20
- TriCore
|
|
|
|
*For latest target availability information, please contact your local Wind River sales representative |
|
|
|
Return to top |
|
|
|
|
|
