Half Moon Bay, Calif. — OnCore Systems Corporation today announced two new embedded Linux usage models for system developers who use the company's real-time microkernel foundation along with Linux: Linux OnDemand and Linux OnCall. The first of these permits Linux to be loaded and unloaded dynamically; the second is an API that makes direct OnCore microkernel calls, eliminating Linux scheduler and… process overhead.

Linux OnDemand

OnCore's Linux OnDemand product enables embedded engineers to design systems that will facilitate the loading of a standard version of Linux into embedded systems — on an as-needed basis. By utilizing OnCore's Systems Software Foundation, Linux and its applications are loaded on top of OnCore's microkernel foundation and reside within individual MMU-protected partitions. Standard Linux applications run unmodified in this environment. When no longer needed, OnCore's Linux OnDemand can safely unload the Linux operating system and applications — even while the system continues to function in a production environment.

Using OnCore's Linux OnDemand, customers can, for example, reconfigure remote network devices as required. When a local or remote unit needs to be reconfigured with a modified C program, all a system engineer has to do is load Linux OnDemand, run a compiler and linker on the target system, optionally storing a backup version of the newly created application module on a remotely connected disk drive, then execute the reconfigured C application to create a totally new embedded environment personality. A bonus feature is that, optionally, Linux OnDemand can delete itself to release valuable memory for ongoing tasks. This functionality allows engineers to reconfigure live, remote systems without traveling to the remote site; systems can be reconfigured on the fly without bringing down a working unit.

Linux OnCall

Linux OnCall is a Linux API that makes direct OnCore microkernel calls, eliminating Linux scheduler and process overhead. For example, systems designers could create embedded applications that take advantage of the large number of Linux networking stacks that are readily available, but without the traditional Linux process overhead. By stripping out superfluous process and scheduler code from Linux and making direct microkernel calls, the memory footprint is significantly reduced, while real-time systems characteristics are improved. A potential benefit of OnCall is to reduce costs associated with custom-designed and often proprietary network stacks, and at the same time provide immediate access to the latest networking stacks which are available to the Linux community prior to becoming commercially available.

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