Realtime Operating Systems (RTOS)

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RTCA/DO-178B certifiable RTOS
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Partitioning (ARINC-653 standard) operating systems ready for Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification (Advisory Circular 20-115B) with RTCA/DO-178B and EUROCAE ED-12B standards. They are intended for use in civil aircrafts, the most safety-critical application known for electronic devices. RTCA/DO-178B and EUROCAE ED-12B are very strict, extensive and very expensive standards.
RTOS Manufact. Kernel Standards Compilers Com.
Protocols 		Host OS Arch.
16bit 		Arch.
32bit 		Arch.
64bit
INTEGRITY -178B Green Hills INTEGRITY -178B partitioning kernel DO-178B Level A, ARINC-653-1, POSIX.1, uITRON 4.0, OpenGL 1.3 Green Hills C, Embedded C++, Ada95 TCP/IP, PPP, FTP, Telnet, POP3, Bluetooth, Firewire, USB, X.25, SSH. Linux, Solaris, HP-UX - PowerPC PowerPC
VxWorks 653 Wind River VxWorks 653 partitioning kernel DO-178B Level A, ARINC-653, POSIX, OpenGL Wind River C, C++, AdaCore Ada TCP/IP, PPP, USB VxWorks - PowerPC -
LynxOS-178 LYNUX WORKS LynxOS-178 partitioning kernel DO-178B Level A, ARINC-653, POSIX.1, Linux 2.4 API GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB, VME, PCI, PCMCIA, ISA, 1553, Fibre Channel, AFDX, CAN. LynxOS, Solaris, AIX - PowerPC, x86 PowerPC
CsLEOS BAE SYSTEMS CsLEOS partitioning kernel DO-178B Level A, ARINC-653, POSIX, OpenGL, CORBA Score C, C++, Ada, TCP/IP. Solaris - PowerPC -
Valid-653 Validated Software raw ARINC-653 time and space scheduler DO-178B Level A, ARINC-653 GCC, any commercial compiler - Solaris, any GNU hosts - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, any Processor with MMU -

Partitioning realtime operating systems
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Partitioning operating systems for safety-critical applications like cars, trains, military aircraft, weapons, etc. Safety-critical application for an RTOS implies that an execution failure could result in injury or loss of human life. Every task executed by the operating system must be separated and can only communicate over a well-defined general-purpose application/executive (APEX) interface, specified in ARINC-653 standard. The malfunction of a low priority task can't interfere with high priority and safety tasks.
RTOS Manufact. Kernel Standards Compilers Com.
Protocols 		Host OS Arch.
16bit 		Arch.
32bit 		Arch.
64bit
INTEGRITY Green Hills velOSity 5.0 (Green Hills) microkernel, 30kB ARINC-653, POSIX.1, uITRON 4.0, OpenGL 1.3 Green Hills C, C++, Embedded C++, Ada95 TCP/IP, PPP, FTP, Telnet, POP3, Bluetooth, Firewire, USB, X.25, SSH. Linux, Solaris, HP-UX - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, ColdFire, Blackfin, TI OMAP MIPS, PowerPC
RTLinuxPro FSMLabs RTCore kernel, 500kB - 2000kB ARINC-653, POSIX, Linux 2.4, Linux 2.6 GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB Linux - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 PowerPC
RTCoreBSD FSMLabs RTCore kernel ARINC-653, POSIX, NetBSD 2.0, FreeBSD 4.10 GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB Linux - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 PowerPC
PikeOS SYSGO P4, (based on TU Dresdens L4 microkernel) ARINC-653, POSIX, Linux 2.4, OSEK, uITRON GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB Linux, Solaris, Unix - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 -

Common realtime operating systems
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Common realtime operating systems for applications where a predictable deterministic time reaction is mandatory like in UAVs, satellites, robotics, machine controls, engine controls, etc.
RTOS Manufact. Kernel Standards Compilers Com.
Protocols 		Host OS Arch.
16bit 		Arch.
32bit 		Arch.
64bit
QNX Neutrino QNX Software Systems QNX Neutrino microkernel, 64kB POSIX.1, OpenGL ES GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB QNX, Linux, Solaris - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 -
VxWorks Wind River VxWorks kernel POSIX, OpenGL GCC, Wind River C, C++, AdaCore Ada TCP/IP, PPP, USB VxWorks - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, SH, x86, 68k MIPS, PowerPC
LynxOS LYNUX WORKS LynxOS kernel, 280kB - 4000kB POSIX.1, Linux 2.4 API GCC TCP/IP, PPP, USB, VME, PCI, PCMCIA, ISA, 1553, Fibre Channel, AFDX, CAN. LynxOS, Solaris, AIX - MIPS, PowerPC, x86 MIPS, PowerPC
RTAI-Linux Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale (DIAPM) - Politecnico di Milano free, GPL RTAI-Linux kernel, 500kB - 2000kB POSIX, Linux 2.4 GCC UDP/IP, CAN. Linux - ARM, PowerPC, x86 x86
L4Linux TU Dresden, L4Ka, L4hq.org, free, GPL L4 microkernel POSIX, Linux 2.4, Linux 2.6 GCC - Linux - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 IA64, MIPS, PowerPC, Alpha, x86
L4/Fiasco TU Dresden, L4Ka, L4hq.org, free, GPL L3, L4 and Fiasco microkernel - GCC - Linux - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, x86 IA64, MIPS, PowerPC, Alpha, x86
RTOS-UH Institute for Automatic Control, University of Hannover OSE kernel, 23kB-800kB - GCC TCP/IP, CAN, INTERBUS, PROFIBUS Any - PowerPC, 68k -
RTEMS OAR Corp., free, GPL RTEMS kernel, 64kB-? POSIX.1, uITRON 3.0, CORBA GCC, GNAT Ada95 TCP/IP, PPP Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, MacOS-X H8 MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, OpenRisc32, SPARC, SH, i960, 68k, TMS320C3x, TMS320C4x MIPS
eCos Cygnus Solutions (Red Hat), eCosCentric, free, GPL eCos kernel, 1250 Bytes - 300kB POSIX.1, uITRON GCC TCP/IP, PPP, I2C, SPI, USB slave, PCI, PCMCIA, CF, JFFS2, SMP. Linux H8, CalmRisc16, MN102 MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, SH, x86, 68k, FR-V, V850, CalmRisc32, MN103 MIPS

Tiny realtime operating systems
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Tiny realtime operating systems for deeply embedded applications with smaller processors where deterministic (not necessarily fast) time reactions are needed. Mostly used in control devices.
RTOS Manufact. Kernel Standards Compilers Com.
Protocols 		Host OS Arch.
16bit 		Arch.
32bit 		Arch.
8bit
Omega Environment Cedaryacht, free Omega Kernel, 50kB - GCC TCP/IP Linux, Solaris, Unix - PowerPC -
OSE ENEA OSE kernel, 4kB-100kB - GCC TCP/IP Linux, Solaris - MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, TI OMAP -
C Executive / PSX JMI Software Systems C Executive kernel, 5kB-45kB POSIX.1 subset GCC, GNAT Ada95 TCP/IP, PPP Solaris, Any 68k, x86 MIPS, ARM, PowerPC, SPARC, i960, ColdFire, 68k, x86, TMS320C6000, TMS320C3x -
RTXC Quadros Quadros Systems Quadros kernel - GCC TCP/IP Solaris C166 ARM, PowerPC, ColdFire, Blackfin, TI C54x, TI C55x -
uC/OS-II Micrium, Jean Labrosse uC/OS-II kernel DO-178B, MISRA Any ANSI C compiler CAN, Modbus, TCP/IP, USB Any x86, HC12, 68k, H8, H8S, M16C, M32C, C166, dsPIC, MSP430 x86, 68k, Coldfire, PowerPC, ARM, MIPS, SH, Blackfin, TriCore, V850 AVR, HC08, 8051, PIC18
ProOSEK 3Soft OSEK-OS 2.2 kernel OSEK/VDX Any ANSI C compiler CAN Linux, Any HC12, H8S, C166, XC166, ST10, TMS470 MPC555, SH2, V850, Excalibur (ARM9) HC08
FreeRTOS Richard Barry, free, GPL FreeRTOS kernel - GCC TCP/IP Any H8, MSP430, H8, M68HCS12, x86 ARM, MicroBlaze AVR, 8051, PICMicro
embOS SEGGER embOS kernel, 1.2kB-4.5kB - GCC, any ANSI C compiler TCP/IP Linux MSP430, H8, M32C, M16C, R8C ARM, FR-30, FR-V, V850, NIOS II AVR, 8051
eXtreme Shift-Right Technologies, free, GPL eXtreme kernel, 336 Bytes - GCC, HEW2, NC30 TCP/IP Linux H8, M16C, R8C - AVR

(c) 2006, 2007 Ralf Schaefer Consulting