Enea plans to ship later this year an asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) version of its OSE embedded operating system for multi-core chips from Freescale and Broadcom. OSE AMP will feature integrated load balancing, and will support real-time OSE applications alongside Linux applications, Enea says.

Enea, which claims to be the world's second-largest telecom operating system company (after Wind River), currently supports simultaneous OSE and Linux installations through its “Orchestra” SDK, shipped last July. The Orchestra SDK can be used to build multi-processor systems in which Linux runs high-level telecom, datacom, and management applications, while OSE handles hard real-time processing like control, fault notification, hot swap, and dynamic discovery, Enea says.

OSE AMP will extend and enhance the Enea Orchestra framework, Enea says, by supporting a broader range of operating systems. It will also utilize load balancing technology that enables applications to be reassigned to processing nodes while the system is running. This flexibility will enable OSE to deliver the flexibility of an SMP system with the real-time responsiveness of a traditional distributed RTOS implementation, Enea claims.

Unlike SMP, which utilizes a single operating system and homogenous processing network, OSE's AMP framework will support heterogeneous systems utilizing multiple operating systems and processors, each optimized for specific tasks. Designers will be able to configure their system with a broad range of CPUs, DSPs, and hybrid controllers, and will be able to combine OSE with other operating systems such as Linux, the company says.

Michael Christofferson, director of product marketing at Enea, explains, “SMP is not well suited for many applications that require predictable, real-time response, does not scale well in larger systems, and lacks fault tolerant features. Our AMP solution will give designers an easy way to deploy flexible distributed multiprocessor solutions with integrated load balancing, without compromising real-time response and control. Unlike SMP systems, where the OS distributes tasks automatically to CPUs without regard to the application's real-time requirements, our AMP solution will give developers complete control over how tasks are distributed. This will enable OSE developers to create balanced multiprocessor solutions that deliver predictable real-time response.”

OSE AMP will be offered initially for Freescale's 8641D multi-core processor, and for Broadcom's second-generation multi-core processors, the BCM 12xx and 14xx.

 
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