[ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Tim Michals]

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All,
 
Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  
Will all efforts be towards embedded Linux?
 
Tim

Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Grant Edwards]

On Fri, Jan 28, 2000 at 09:27:33AM -0600, Tim Michals wrote:

> Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  Will all
> efforts be towards embedded Linux?

I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
common other than they're both open-source operating systems.

Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com

Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Gary Thomas]

On 28-Jan-00 Grant Edwards wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 28, 2000 at 09:27:33AM -0600, Tim Michals wrote:
> 
>> Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  Will all
>> efforts be towards embedded Linux?
> 
> I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
> common other than they're both open-source operating systems.
> 
> Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.
> 

Actually we expect both to continue to exist, and hopefully, thrive.
eCos and Embedded Linux do have different aims, and are targetted
at opposite ends of the embedded "spectrum."  Our goal is for a
unified approach, being driven by the [currently named] EL/IX effort.

EL/IX is a design API for embedded systems, which attempts to handle
the entire spectrum.  The basic API is designed to be OS neutral,
with the underlying OS (be it Linux or eCos or whatever) providing
the support for the API.  The API is layered in such a way that 
applications can target to it and be protected from the details of
the OS that implements it.

We [Red Hat] intend to support eCos (with an EL/IX compatability layer)
as well as Linux in this world.

For more details, see the EL/IX project page:
  http://sourceware.cygnus.com/elix/

Or, better yet, come by and see EL/IX in action at the Linux World Expo,
Feb 2-4, in New York City.

Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Paul Beskeen]

> >> Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  Will all
> >> efforts be towards embedded Linux?
> >
> > I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
> > common other than they're both open-source operating systems.
> >
> > Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.
>
> Actually we expect both to continue to exist, and hopefully, thrive.
> eCos and Embedded Linux do have different aims, and are targetted
> at opposite ends of the embedded "spectrum."  Our goal is for a
> unified approach, being driven by the [currently named] EL/IX effort.
>
> EL/IX is a design API for embedded systems, which attempts to handle
> the entire spectrum.  The basic API is designed to be OS neutral,
> with the underlying OS (be it Linux or eCos or whatever) providing
> the support for the API.  The API is layered in such a way that
> applications can target to it and be protected from the details of
> the OS that implements it.
>
> We [Red Hat] intend to support eCos (with an EL/IX compatability layer)
> as well as Linux in this world.
>
> For more details, see the EL/IX project page:
>   http://sourceware.cygnus.com/elix/
>
> Or, better yet, come by and see EL/IX in action at the Linux World Expo,
> Feb 2-4, in New York City.

People will find this interview with Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann of interest
on this subject.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/cgi-bin/article_view.cgi?artid=AT7351624613

Paul.

Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Brendan J Simon]

Grant Edwards wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 28, 2000 at 09:27:33AM -0600, Tim Michals wrote:
>
> > Since Cygnus was bought Redhat, will eCOS exist?  Will all
> > efforts be towards embedded Linux?
>
> I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
> common other than they're both open-source operating systems.
>
> Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.

What features does eCos have that Linux does not (besides Real Time
scheduling and code space).
There are real time available features for Linux so I do envisage them
competing for similar markets but not necessarily all markets.  For
example, our company makes rack mount encryption products.  We were
going to use a commercial RTOS which supplies full source code but are
now going to embed Linux.  eCos was discussed but was not chosen due to
the lack of IP stack, SNMP, filesystem, etc.

Brendan Simon.

Re: [ECOS] Linux and Ecos

[Grant Edwards]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2000 at 02:03:29PM +1100, Brendan J Simon wrote:

> > I hope not.  eCos and embedded Linux have almost nothing in
> > common other than they're both open-source operating systems.
> >
> > Embedded Linux and and eCos do not compete with each other.
> 
> What features does eCos have that Linux does not (besides Real Time
> scheduling and code space).

Real time scheduling and code space are sort of the whole point
of an RTOS.  Aside from that, eCos will run from ROM, it will
run on a machine without virtual memory, and on many processors
which Linux will not.

> There are real time available features for Linux so I do envisage them
> competing for similar markets but not necessarily all markets.  

Perhaps there is a small area where the two might overlap, but
in the 15 years I've been unsing RTOSes, Embedded Linux would
never come close to meeting the requirements for any of the
projects on which I've worked.

> For example, our company makes rack mount encryption products.
> We were going to use a commercial RTOS which supplies full
> source code but are now going to embed Linux.

It must be nice to have that much memory, mass storage for a
filesystem, and such a powerful processor.  I've never had
those luxuries in the real-time projects on which I've worked.

> eCos was discussed but was not chosen due to the lack of IP
> stack, SNMP, filesystem, etc.

You are correct that eCOS doesn't have SNMP (nor do any of the
RTOSes which which I am famialiar). eCos has several TCP/IP
stacks availble (some commercial, some free) and several
filesystems available (all commercial, AFAIK).

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com