[Updated Oct. 27] — Sysgo is readying a new real-time version of its “industrial grade” Linux distribution. ELinOS Real-Time includes a POSIX PSE51 microkernel said to be capable of running single-process, multi-threaded POSIX tasks within secure partitions, along with a user-space Linux partition for non-time-critical tasks.

Sysgo shipped PikeOS, its PSE51 microkernel, more than a year ago, along with a 4.0 release of ELinOS described as capable of running in a secure partition under the RTOS, as shown below.

PikeOS, running real-time applications alongside Linux and other OSes

What's new appears to be an effort to market PikeOS as an integral part of ELinOS, rather than as a real-time “add-on.” Additionally, Sysgo appears to have enhanced its ELK (embedded Linux konfigurator) tool with PikeOS awareness.

According to Sysgo, ELinOS Real-time comprises:

• PikeOS, supporting the POSIX PSE51 profile for single-process, multi-threaded RTOSes
  • Provides a “dedicated partition” for each POSIX task
  • Prevents Linux from interfering with execution of real-time applications
• Linux, running within a dedicated user-space PikeOS partition having its own address space and I/O protection

ELinOS Real-time architecture
Sysgo says that ELK's “guided configuration process” helps users:

• Define access to I/O devices on a per-partition basis
• Define inter-partition communication channels
• Define shared memory or FIFOs for data exchange between tasks

By default, POSIX applications have access to the Linux file system, the company notes.

Sysgo says ELinOS Real-time will work with its Eclipse-based “Codeo” IDE and target analyzer. These tools avail users of target memory utilization, IRQ behavior, process trees, and available sockets, and can be used to debug Linux or POSIX real-time tasks, the company says.

According to Sysgo CTO Detlev Schaadt, “ELinOS Real-time [enables] customers to deploy embedded Linux even in hard real-time and safety critical environments.”

Availability

ELinOS Real-time is available now. Pricing was not announced.

Sysgo also offers various extensions for ELinOS Real-time, including a POSIX IPv4/IPv6 TCP/IP stack, real-time Java or Ada runtime environments, and even a VxWorks library.

Another commercial real-time Linux implementation, FSMLabs's RTLinux, also includes a microkernel supporting POSIX PSE51 requirements.

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