LynuxWorks today announced a VxWorks Compatibility Layer (VCL) package to help developers port VxWorks code to LynxOS, the company's Linux-like proprietary real-time operating system (RTOS). LynuxWorks says VCL enables legacy VxWorks code written for VxWorks's flat-memory model to be quickly ported to LynxOS, where it can run with memory protection and other benefits of a true multi-threaded,… POSIX-compliant RTOS.

VCL is a porting kit, not an application binary interface (ABI), such as the Linux ABI feature available for LynxOS that enables Linux executables to run unchanged on the hard-real-time LynxOS OS.

VxWorks applications that are ported to LynxOS using the VCL run in separate name spaces through the deployment of multiple virtual VxWorks environments. This prevents application misbehavior from taking down the whole system, as can happen under the flat address model used by VxWorks, according to lynuxWorks, where multiple tasks can have re-entrance and naming conflicts because they share the same global name space.

The VxWorks porting kit provides recommendations for identifying certain types of code that may require special attention and porting by hand due to the intrinsic implementation differences between LynxOS and VxWorks.

Bob Morris, vice president, sales and marketing for LynuxWorks, said, “Embedded software development teams need to port existing applications to LynxOS quickly and efficiently while maintaining code and data in protected spaces. LynuxWorks' VxWorks Compatibility Layer makes this a reality.”

 
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