Embedded Operating Systems And Board Support Packages

This book outlines the major elements that go into embedded operating systems and board support packages (BSPs), and gives readers a strong foundation on which to apply the technology they must master in the future. It describes types of embedded operating systems and demonstrates how they can be implemented within a particular embedded device. Current exciting technology trends within the embedded systems arena are discussed, including the latest examples of real world technologies: references to real-world hardware and software protocols, as well as references to technical specifications, are used. With this book you will learn: what an embedded operating system is and what a board support package is to understand the main components that make up embedded operating systems, and their internal design how to determine the most suitable embedded operating system for a particular device how to select the best embedded operating system for a particular product, between different real world embedded operating systems available on the market what the main components that make up a board support package (BSP) are, and the internal design of BSPs how to port an embedded operating system from one platform to another, and the importance of a board support package in solving the challenges of porting embedded middleware and application software from one embedded platform design, development and debugging of an embedded operating system and an underlying board support package how to predict the security, robustness and predictability of an embedded system that utilizes a particular embedded operating system design Outlines the entire process of designing embedded operating systems and their underlying board support packages References to real-world hardware and software demonstrate and explain practical ‘know how’, relative to the underlying concepts throughout the entire book Contains numerous real world examples (based on industry software), source code, problems and solutions, references, projects, glossary, and web links with software

A practical tutorial guide which introduces you to the basics of Yocto Project, and also helps you with its real hardware use to boost your Embedded Linux-based project. If you are an embedded systems enthusiast and willing to learn about compelling features offered by the Yocto Project, then this book is for you. With prior experience in the embedded Linux domain, you can make the most of this book to efficiently create custom Linux-based systems.

This practically-oriented textbook provides a clear introduction to the different component parts of an operating system and how these work together. The easy-to-follow text covers the bootloader, kernel, filesystem, shared libraries, start-up scripts, configuration files and system utilities. The procedure for building each component is described in detail, guiding the reader through the process of creating a fully functional GNU/Linux embedded OS. Features: presents a concise overview of the GNU/Linux system, and a detailed review of GNU/Linux filesystems; describes how to build an embedded system to run on a virtual machine, and to run natively on an actual processor; introduces the concept of the compiler toolchain, demonstrating how to develop a cross toolchain so that programs can be built on a range of different architectures; discusses the ARM-based platforms BeagleBone and Raspberry Pi; explains how to build OpenWRT firmware images for OMxP Open-mesh devices and the Dragino MS14 series.

This book covers the basic concepts and principles of operating systems, showing how to apply them to the design and implementation of complete operating systems for embedded and real-time systems. It includes all the foundational and background information on ARM architecture, ARM instructions and programming, toolchain for developing programs, virtual machines for software implementation and testing, program execution image, function call conventions, run-time stack usage and link C programs with assembly code. Embedded and Real-Time Operating Systems describes the design and implementation of a complete OS for embedded systems in incremental steps, explaining the design principles and implementation techniques. For Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP) embedded systems, the author examines the ARM MPcore processors, which include the SCU and GIC for interrupts routing and interprocessor communication and synchronization by Software Generated Interrupts (SGIs). This Second Edition covers ARM64 architecture and programming. These include exception levels, vector tables and exceptions handling, GICv3 programming and interrupt processing. It covers virtual to physical address mappings in ARMv8, and shows a 64-bit OS with kernel space in EL1 and separate user spaces in EL0. It also covers ARM TrustZone technology and secure systems. These include hardware and software architectures for secure and normal worlds, interactions and switching between the two worlds. It shows a secure world comprising a secure monitor in EL3 to provide service functions, and a normal world comprising processes in non-secure EL1, which use SMC to access service functions in the secure world. Throughout the book, complete working sample systems demonstrate the design principles and implementation techniques. The content is suitable for advanced-level and graduate students working in software engineering, programming, and systems theory.

In today’s life, embedded systems are ubiquitous. But they differ from traditional desktop systems in many aspects – these include predictable timing behavior (real-time), the management of scarce resources (memory, network), reliable communication protocols, energy management, special purpose user-interfaces (headless operation), system configuration, programming languages (to support software/hardware co-design), and modeling techniques. Within this technical report, authors present results from the lecture “Operating Systems for Embedded Computing” that has been offered by the “Operating Systems and Middleware” group at HPI in Winter term 2013/14. Focus of the lecture and accompanying projects was on principles of real-time computing. Students had the chance to gather practical experience with a number of different OSes and applications and present experiences with near-hardware programming. Projects address the entire spectrum, from bare-metal programming to harnessing a real-time OS to exercising the full software/hardware co-design cycle. Three outstanding projects are at the heart of this technical report. Project 1 focuses on the development of a bare-metal operating system for LEGO Mindstorms EV3. While still a toy, it comes with a powerful ARM processor, 64 MB of main memory, standard interfaces, such as Bluetooth and network protocol stacks. EV3 runs a version of 1 1 Introduction Linux. Sources are available from Lego’s web site. However, many devices and their driver software are proprietary and not well documented. Developing a new, bare-metal OS for the EV3 requires an understanding of the EV3 boot process. Since no standard input/output devices are available, initial debugging steps are tedious. After managing these initial steps, the project was able to adapt device drivers for a few Lego devices to an extent that a demonstrator (the Segway application) could be successfully run on the new OS. Project 2 looks at the EV3 from a different angle. The EV3 is running a pretty decent version of Linux- in principle, the RT_PREEMPT patch can turn any Linux system into a real-time OS by modifying the behavior of a number of synchronization constructs at the heart of the OS. Priority inversion is a problem that is solved by protocols such as priority inheritance or priority ceiling. Real-time OSes implement at least one of the protocols. The central idea of the project was the comparison of non-real-time and real-time variants of Linux on the EV3 hardware. A task set that showed effects of priority inversion on standard EV3 Linux would operate flawlessly on the Linux version with the RT_PREEMPT-patch applied. If only patching Lego’s version of Linux was that easy... Project 3 takes the notion of real-time computing more seriously. The application scenario was centered around our Carrera Digital 132 racetrack. Obtaining position information from the track, controlling individual cars, detecting and modifying the Carrera Digital protocol required design and implementation of custom controller hardware. What to implement in hardware, firmware, and what to implement in application software – this was the central question addressed by the project.

Shares many advanced, "in-the-trenches" design secrets to help engineers achieve better performance on the job!

There's a great deal of excitement surrounding the use of Linux in embedded systems -- for everything from cell phones to car ABS systems and water-filtration plants -- but not a lot of practical information. Building Embedded Linux Systems offers an in-depth, hard-core guide to putting together embedded systems based on Linux. Updated for the latest version of the Linux kernel, this new edition gives you the basics of building embedded Linux systems, along with the configuration, setup, and use of more than 40 different open source and free software packages in common use. The book also looks at the strengths and weaknesses of using Linux in an embedded system, plus a discussion of licensing issues, and an introduction to real-time, with a discussion of real-time options for Linux. This indispensable book features arcane and previously undocumented procedures for: Building your own GNU development toolchain Using an efficient embedded development framework Selecting, configuring, building, and installing a target-specific kernel Creating a complete target root filesystem Setting up, manipulating, and using solid-state storage devices Installing and configuring a bootloader for the target Cross-compiling a slew of utilities and packages Debugging your embedded system using a plethora of tools and techniques Using the uClibc, BusyBox, U-Boot, OpenSSH, thttpd, tftp, strace, and gdb packages By presenting how to build the operating system components from pristine sources and how to find more documentation or help, Building Embedded Linux Systems greatly simplifies the task of keeping complete control over your embedded operating system.

Embedded Software Development: The Open-Source Approach delivers a practical introduction to embedded software development, with a focus on open-source components. This programmer-centric book is written in a way that enables even novice practitioners to grasp the development process as a whole. Incorporating real code fragments and explicit, real-world open-source operating system references (in particular, FreeRTOS) throughout, the text: Defines the role and purpose of embedded systems, describing their internal structure and interfacing with software development tools Examines the inner workings of the GNU compiler collection (GCC)-based software development system or, in other words, toolchain Presents software execution models that can be adopted profitably to model and express concurrency Addresses the basic nomenclature, models, and concepts related to task-based scheduling algorithms Shows how an open-source protocol stack can be integrated in an embedded system and interfaced with other software components Analyzes the main components of the FreeRTOS Application Programming Interface (API), detailing the implementation of key operating system concepts Discusses advanced topics such as formal verification, model checking, runtime checks, memory corruption, security, and dependability Embedded Software Development: The Open-Source Approach capitalizes on the authors’ extensive research on real-time operating systems and communications used in embedded applications, often carried out in strict cooperation with industry. Thus, the book serves as a springboard for further research.

Many systems, devices and appliances used routinely in everyday life, ranging from cell phones to cars, contain significant amounts of software that is not directly visible to the user and is therefore called "embedded". For coordinating the various software components and allowing them to communicate with each other, support software is needed, called an operating system (OS). Because embedded software must function in real time (RT), a RTOS is needed. This book describes a formally developed, network-centric Real-Time Operating System, OpenComRTOS. One of the first in its kind, OpenComRTOS was originally developed to verify the usefulness of formal methods in the context of embedded software engineering. Using the formal methods described in this book produces results that are more reliable while delivering higher performance. The result is a unique real-time concurrent programming system that supports heterogeneous systems with just 5 Kbytes/node. It is compatible with safety related engineering standards, such as IEC61508.

Embedded Firmware Solutions is the perfect introduction and daily-use field guide--for the thousands of firmware designers, hardware engineers, architects, managers, and developers--to Intel’s new firmware direction (including Quark coverage), showing how to integrate Intel® Architecture designs into their plans. Featuring hands-on examples and exercises using Open Source codebases, like Coreboot and EFI Development Kit (tianocore) and Chromebook, this is the first book that combines a timely and thorough overview of firmware solutions for the rapidly evolving embedded ecosystem with in-depth coverage of requirements and optimization.