Re: [ECOS] how many eCOS users?

[lunn at ma dot tech dot ascom dot ch (Andrew Lunn)]

> I'm trying to generate enough of a warm fuzzy feeling about eCOS in
> upper management to get them to go along with my recommendation to use
> it in a new product line.

I had to do this a few months ago. I managed it and so far im very
pleased with eCos.
 
> So far, the big advantage of eCOS is that we can give customers a
> pre-configured eCOS setup (including device drivers for our proprietary
> hardware) and a complete set of development tools if they want to
> develop their own applications.  The Linux synthetic target is also a
> plus, though other vendors have similar things for their products that
> run under MS-Windows.

To me other big selling points were source code for everything. I also
looked at VRTX. I kept asking about access to source code and reading
between the lines the answer was always, yes you can have the source
code, but no we don't want you to have it.

I've found sources for the tools and eCos realy usefull. I had a very
strange problem with LD inserting extra 0x00 into the object code. It
was not reproducable by anyone else. It was not until i stepped
thought the code with a debugger and found the fwrite() statement that
it became clear it was a bug in Solaris's NFS server!

Another big thing is Cygnus's support. The support of eCos is realy
good if you have a support contract. This is something i am realy
pleased with. Fast and accurate responces, typically withing a
day. They have made minor modifications to eCos to help me, they are
happy to answer questions about how the internals work etc, they realy
know how the hardware works. You talk to the engineers who actually
wrote the code.
 
The uptake of the sourceware version seems to of been slow to start
with. Its now starting to take off. If you read the email on this list
you see more and more ports going on to other hardware. Also people
are starting to work on other, non platform dependant things like
TCP/IP stacks. This open source development of eCos could very well be
the key to its success. Cygnus has limited resources for porting to
new hardware and providing new facilities. As Linux has shown, the
amount of resource on the Net is hugh and some realy amazing things
can be done.

> One of the questions I know they're going to ask is how many people
> are using eCOS in products?

ASCOM will be for the PowerLine products. 

        Andrew Lunn

____________________________

Andrew Lunn
Research Engineer
Phone +41 62 889 52 97
Fax +41 62 889 52 90
Andrew.Lunn@ascom.ch

Ascom Systec Ltd.
Applicable Research & Technology
Gewerbepark
CH-5506 Maegenwil
Switzerland

www.ascom.com/art