April 1998, Issue 93

Software Development for RTOSs

WRAP UP

You have seen that software development for RTOSs is not much different than writing code for your favorite desktop system. In some cases, you can even use the same development environment you’d normally use to develop Windows applications.

Other systems allow the developer to login into their RTOS system, just like a full-featured operating system and do their development there. Either way, it’s usually easy to set up a development environment for the particular RTOS you want to use.

Also, by doing the software development in C and isolating OS depending API features in a single module or using macros defined in header files, it is possible to write applications, which are relatively portable between different RTOS architectures.

To learn more about writing software for a particular RTOS, check out all the documentation. It’s usually full of example code illustrating how to use the specific APIs. Also many RTOSs provide on-line examples, which you can compile and run to illustrate certain features about an RTOS’s API.

Next month, I’ll give you a look at some GUIs used in real-time embedded PCs.

Ingo Cyliax has been writing for INK for two years on topics such as embedded systems, FPGA design, and robotics. He is a research engineer at Derivation Systems Inc., a San Diego-based formal synthesis company, where he works on formal-method design tools for high-assurance systems and develops embedded-system products. Before joining DSI, Ingo worked for over 12 years as a system and research engineer for several universities and as an independent consultant. You may reach him at cyliax@ezcomm.com.