Some information..

Data from the Embedded Systems Programming Magazine Subscriber Study show that the use of Linux in a large variety of embedded systems exploded from virtually non-existent in 1999 to 38 % in 2000. Today more than 50 % of all embedded application developments are done with Linux.

Some minimal requirements are:

memory : 1 Mbyte
processor: 80386
hard disk: not necessary

These requirements clearly demonstrate the wide range of products Linux can be used for these days.

selection from many filesystems including Journalling File Systems
works with any CPU which is commercially available
many different kinds of Device Drivers
many source code examples for any application you want to develop
scalable from a small footprint to large multiprocessor systems
soft realtime in Kernel version 2.5 with latencies between 1 - 15 ms
no license fee needs to be paid
many freely available utilities
high compatibility for user applications with version changes
kernel source code available
good diagnostics tools
no supplier dependency
secure, reliable and robust
fan power up
low cost of maintenance
support from ArdisTech

Whether it is an application with a Gui, a database application or drivers in user space or kernel, if you want to be adviced about these subjects please contact us jan@ardistech.com. During a porting job the tasks from the Real Time Operating System (RTOS) are transferred to threads in Linux. Emulation kits exists which facilitate porting from WindRiver, Vxworks or pSOS and Nucleus to Linux.

Traditionaly emulators and JTAG devices are used for debugging. Today, with ethernet, NFS and KGDB one can almost completely debug and trace the target platform from the development platform.

Often, manufacturers are afraid that they may have to disclose their development to the open source community. The situation is really quite simple.

Most libraries within Linux are GNU C libraries and fall under the LGPL license. The Kernel falls under the GPL license. Both licenses are open source, the difference being that LGPL (Less Gnu Public License) allows you to link the library with your application without the application necessarily becoming open source.

Application + LGPL -> not open source

Application + GPL-> open source

Modifying or copying programs under GPL or LGPL -> open source

On boot time anything in the Kernel falls under the GPL license. To protect your development you can use post boot utilities such as Loadable Kernel Modules or Dynamic Linkable Libraries (DLL's).