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Re: How is eCos different from Linux and other RTOS(pSos, Nncleus) ?
- From: Peter Vandenabeele <peter at mind dot be>
- To: AL Chane <al_chane at issc dot com dot tw>, eCos discuss <ecos-discuss at sources dot redhat dot com>
- Date: Tue, 3 Sep 2002 11:53:13 +0200
- Subject: Re: [ECOS] How is eCos different from Linux and other RTOS(pSos, Nncleus) ?
- Organisation: Mind Linux Solutions in Leuven/Belgium -- http://mind.be/
- References: <000d01c25324$e2907040$1f0114ac@ALCHANE>
On Tue, Sep 03, 2002 at 04:35:38PM +0800, AL Chane wrote:
> How is eCos different from Linux and other RTOS(pSos, Nucleus)?
a few elements I see from a practical point of view:
- Linux is not an RTOS. eCos, pSos, Nucleus and QNX are an RTOS
(using RTAI and others, Linux can be extended to have most of the
features of an RTOS; there are also intermediate solutions to improve
the response time of Linux, without making it a true RTOS).
- Linux and eCos (and RTEMS I believe) are all Free Software:
- Open Source: unlimited right to copy, modify, distribute, fork
- Open Access: the source is public, not hidden on CD's that are only
for sale for a lot of money (some Linux derivatives
suffer from this)
- Free use: there is no charge for using it, also in commercial
applications (at least one Linux derivative limits
commercial use through software patent enforcement)
- the other OS's (pSos, Nucleus, QNX) at least charge money for using
them in commercial applications (they may be Open Source, Open Access,
but never completely Free use)
- eCos has a much smaller footprint (order of 10 difference)
- Linux has memory protection (important for large project development,
user loaded applications, security related systems, ...)
- Linux has more extensive support for peripheral devices, networking,
GUI's, many new features than the smaller RTOS's (this is obvious,
since it is much more code and there is a vast developer community)
- QNX combines more of the high-end Linux features with real-time
> How is eCos related to Linux?
- Free Software and all the advantages that brings
- community development
- no vendor lock-in
- have a choice for development and support partners
- control
- POSIX (at least partially)
> Does it take less efforts to port driver for Linux to eCos than
> pSos/Nucleus ?
>
> thanks
Sincerely,
Peter
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