Salt Lake City, UT — (press release excerpt) — Lineo Inc. today announced Lineo Embedix BridgeWorks VX and PS, which the company claims are the first hard real-time solutions for porting legacy code from VxWorks or pSOS+ to embedded Linux without making use of a translation layer. Instead, Lineo has implemented RTOS services that operate natively on the legacy API and run ahead of Linux.

Solutions for migrating legacy applications from one operating system to another typically employ a translation layer that emulates calls to the legacy RTOS services using one or more API from the replacement operating system. Fundamentally important is the ability of the translation layer to closely emulate both the functionality and performance of the legacy RTOS. A functionally equivalent emulation imposes additional overhead, thereby altering real-time characteristics and reducing application performance. However, incorrect emulation can lead to unexpected or undesirable effects to both functionality and performance, resulting from differences in the basic architecture of the legacy RTOS and the replacement operating system. The translation technique causes performance deterioration that is compounded by moving from a hard real-time operating system to an inherently non-real-time operating system such as Linux. Unlike functionality complications, which can often be minimized with code changes to the translation layer, the legacy application code or the translated application code, the underlying operating system may cause performance problems to which there is no easy remedy.

Lineo Embedix BridgeWorks VX and PS avoid inherent complications with functionality and underlying operating systems by not using a translation technique. Instead, Lineo has created a new, clean room implementation of RTOS services that operates natively on the legacy API and runs ahead of Linux. The advantages of this architecture include:

• Real-time services with microsecond performance by default.
  
• Best possible performance: Linux kernel activities cannot impede the legacy API real-time layer.
  
• No translation / emulation complications.
  
• Flat memory model, as used by the legacy RTOS.
  
• User applications have full access to Linux services.
  
• Elimination of dependency on original legacy RTOS vendor.
  
• No dual-kernel patent issues.
  
• Migrated legacy applications are not required to be released under an open source license.

“Many developers who use a legacy RTOS in their projects have been searching for alternative solutions but have been hesitant to move too far from their roots due to man-years of investment in their product development,” said Alford Frost, Lineo SVP marketing and business development. “Embedix BridgeWorks VX and PS provide the complete alternative for developers to move embedded projects away from closed legacy code, without losing functionality or performance, to an open code solution.”

Lineo provides the Embedix BridgeWorks VX and PS products (including a comprehensive migration guide) as optional packages for integration with the Lineo Embedix SDK and the associated Lineo board support package. Embedix BridgeWorks VX and PS add-ins are available in Jan. 2002 for x86 platforms and later in Q1 2002 for PPC and MIPS platforms. Each add-in is available for $2500 for the first seat and $1500 for each additional seat. Source code for both products is available under an optional license.

 
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