Building sophisticated, real-time embedded systems from scratch is both time-consuming and inefficient. Nobody wants to debug hardware, software, firmware, the RTOS integration, and software drivers when all of the components are brand-new and unproven in and of themselves. Engineers like to isolate and modify one variable at a time when designing and debugging, but you have to start with something already working to make any quick progress. Waiting for the first proto-board to come back from layout usually takes weeks on the engineering schedule, while the software and firmware engineers try their best to develop code and drivers for a nonexistent platform.

Building a temporary start-up system of off-the-shelf components is often just as problematic, piecing together pieces of the system that may come from different vendors. Am I debugging my system or a problem with a supplier’s component? Is this inoperable? Is it expensive?

Enter low-cost but fully comprehensive embedded development kits based on a flexible, programmable platform. This development kit is not one of those toys where you have too little memory to do real designs – or so industry-specific in its features that you cannot port or scale it to your own application. For little more than the price of a high-end MP3 player and its accessories, you can now purchase a completely bundled kit that includes hardware, software, JTAG probe, communications cables, and pre-verified reference designs, supporting real embedded processing development and compatible with numerous types of applications. It includes everything you need to build fast and flexible embedded processing systems today. [more]

System Management Trends and Challenges

System management continues to gain importance in the design of all electronic systems because smaller process geometries drive more multi-volt devices and are more susceptible to voltage and temperature fluctuations. System management is a collection of seemingly unrelated tasks with the goal of ensuring the proper operation of the system. These tasks focus on maximizing system uptime, identifying and communicating alert conditions, and logging data and alarm conditions. Boards must also be able to log an event, initiate corrective action, and/or notify a remote supervisor when fault conditions occur. Driven by the need to increase system uptime and reliability, many systems are adding in-system diagnostics and prognostics, not only to help debug systems that have failed, but also to identify potential failures before they arise. In markets driven by standards, reliability and uptime are key metrics by which OEMs can differentiate themselves.

System management tasks often serve varying roles at different operational stages of the board/system, as shown in Table 1. In this case, six stages of system operation have been identified: Power-On, Power-Up, System Operational, Sleep / Low Power, Power-Down, and Off. Table 1 lists the various system management functions and their relevance to the various operational stages. [more]

One of the key questions facing designers of mobile consumer devices today is what functionality must the next-generation design offer? Whatever the exact configuration, mobile devices will clearly need to link seamlessly to home entertainment and office computing equipment in addition to serving as personal entertainment and communications devices. A configurable system solution based on programmable fabric will be essential in this rapidly evolving market so that developers can create designs that combine high-integration, high-performance, and low-power operation while keeping pace with changing requirements.

Many different interfaces will need to be incorporated into next-generation mobile devices for them to take on their expected role as central elements in consumer electronics. The functions that are converging in mobile device designs include portable media players, digital camera/camcorders, handheld video games, and enhanced mobile phones with web browsing and PDA capabilities. While all these applications are unlikely to fully converge, they will steadily integrate features from a shared “wish list.” That list includes functions such as coprocessors, high-capacity storage, WLAN and Bluetooth wireless interfaces, image capture, GPS and television tuners. Combining these features can be a difficult and risky design effort especially since the exact mix that the market will demand is difficult to predict. [more]

Introduction

As connected devices continue to penetrate the mainstream -- fast-paced, technology-savvy consumers constantly demand more from them. They must perform faster, possess higher bandwidth, consume less power and operate with increased autonomy. These increasingly complex embedded devices are driving the immediate need for efficient software solutions that reduce the cost of building and maintaining them.

Virtualization, enabling multiple operating systems to run concurrently on shared hardware, is a disruptive technology that has had a significant impact and positive effect in the enterprise server space due to its ability to reduce costs and improve ROI. However to translate these benefits to the embedded market requires a new virtualization technology. VirtualLogix™ calls this breakthrough technology, Real-Time Virtualization™ for Connected Devices. This differs greatly from previous available enterprise virtualization technology by providing:

• Real-time capability: Many embedded devices require time-critical responses to environmental stimuli.
• High throughput: Applications such as network switching equipment require very high I/O throughput. [more]

Introduction
Wind River has long been the leading provider of real-time solutions to the device software market—first with the market-share-leading VxWorks platform, and more recently with its Linux solutions. With the growing number of product choices within each solution category, it is useful to compare the benefits—and trade-offs—of VxWorks vs. Linux for meeting real-time application requirements. A useful starting point is a re-examination of the definition of “real-time” in terms of application requirements.

This paper considers the underlying differences between soft real-time and hard real-time requirements, provides examples of the types of applications that require each type, and compares how VxWorks and Linux achieve real-time responsiveness.

Soft Real-Time vs. Hard Real-Time
The term “real-time” means different things to different developers. After all, some applications need only an average response time within certain bounds, while others require that every deadline be met every time. One of the most common ways to define real-time is by distinguishing between “soft” real-time and “hard” real-time. Of course even those definitions will vary significantly, but in general: [more]