MontaVista will present a series of technical, two-day classes promoting embedded Linux as an alternative to legacy RTOSes. To a lesser extent, the $995 courses will promote MontaVista's embedded Linux products. The classes are intended for experienced real-time programmers.

Most of the course material is not specific to MontaVista's embedded Linux products. “We conceived these courses to evangelize embedded Linux,” notes MontaVista Director of Strategic Marketing Bill Weinberg.

Dates and times are as follows:

• Sunnyvale, California — February 3-4, 2004
• San Diego, California — February 17-18, 2004
• Chicago, Illinois — March 16-17, 2004
• Boston, Massachusetts — April 20-21, 2004

The courses are intended for experienced real-time programmers with good C programming skills. Students should be familiar with real-time design, memory-mapped I/O, multi-task / multi-threaded programming, and inter-task / inter-process communications.

Course Overview

Introduction

• Challenges to Traditional Embedded Development Model
  
• Introduction to Linux and Open Source
  
• What is Embedded Linux
  • Roll your Own
    
  • MontaVista Linux

Embedded Linux Development Environment

• General Development Practices
  • Development Tools
    
  • Profiling and Performance Monitoring
    
  • Source Code Analysis

• Linux and File Systems
  
• Building a New Linux Kernel

Linux Programming - Scheduling, Processing and Threads

• Linux Memory Model
  • RTOS Model
    
  • Using MMU in Linux
    
  • Linux User Space versus Kernel Space

• Thread Models
  
• Threading Libraries
  
• Scheduling Policies In Linux

Intra/Inter Process Communications

• Similarity to RTOS
  • Shared Memory
    
  • Semaphores and Mutex
    
  • Signals

• Differences between Linux and RTOS
  • System V IPC
    
  • Pipes
    
  • Message Queues

• Choosing your IPC

Networking

• Comparing typical embedded networking with Linux IP networking
  
• Supported Protocols
  • Using Open Source

• Network Device Drivers and Data Flow

Kernel and I/O Overview

• The Linux driver model
  
• Overview of Interrupts and ISRs
  
• Accessing Hardware
  
• Device Driver Design Decisions when moving to Linux

Real-time and MontaVista Linux

• Real Time Requirements and Linux
  
• Designing Applications to Meet Performance Requirements and Determinism
  
• Native Linux Real Time Technology
  
• Benchmarks and Timing Measurements

Porting RTOS Applications to MontaVista Linux

• Design Approach
  
• Embedding Linux and Applications
  
• Application Porting Guidelines
  • Strategies for RTOS API conversion

• Driver Porting Guidelines

Licensing

• What is open source
  
• GPL,LGPL,MPL, OpenBSD and Proprietary Licenses
  
• Obligations under the GPL
  
• Approaches for protecting your intellectual property in a GPL environment

More information is available on MontaVista's Website.

 
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