FSMLabs will verify Advantech's single-board computers (SBCs) with its real-time Linux distribution, and the two companies will jointly support mutual customers, they announced today. Advantech's boards, like FSMLabs's RTLinux and RTCoreBSD real-time OSes, target production systems in robotics, factory automation, infotainment, and telemetry markets, according to the companies.

FSMLabs says the first Advantech boards qualified under its real-time OSes are 3.5-inch “half-biscuit” SBCs, such as the the PCM-9386, powered by an Intel ULV Celeron processor clocked at 600MHz or 1GHz. Under RTLinux, the PCM-9386 reportedly offers worst-case context switches between real-time threads of 5.8 microseconds; sub-14 microsecond scheduling jitter, unloaded; and 52-microsecond scheduling jitter under heavy network and graphics load. Comparable response times under standard Linux and BSD OSes are measurable in milliseconds, according to FSMLabs.

Advantech's PCM-9386, front and back
(Click either view to enlarge)
FSMLabs says its commercially supported real-time Linux and BSD distributions allow developers to deploy sophisticated open source software, including databases, web servers, and graphical user interfaces, while at the same time preserving the determinism required to run POSIX 1003.13 real-time code. The distributions support native Linux and BSD network stacks, and are also available with FSMLabs's zero-copy real-time networking stack.

Advantech VP Jack Huang stated, “Increasingly, our customers need to make use of sophisticated middleware like Java or advanced network services like IP encryption. RTLinux allows them to make use of those services from Linux or BSD UNIX, without fear that critical real-time functions will be delayed.”

“Getting the RTLinux complete control software solution already pre-qualified and tuned to our boards is a major advantage,” added Huang.

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