MPSOC : Which OS do you use and why?

Question

I'm working on MPSOC, specially STM ST40 (SH4 base) and ST231 and I'm wondering which OS i can use on these to port a parallel application, I already had a look at STLinux which is the STM distribution of a Linux platform for their MPSOC (which unfortunately doesn't work well for ST231 coprocessors) and I also had a look at OS21 which is a task based OS.

Any information about other RTOS are warmly welcome! (specially those with libc and pthreads :)

Answer 1

Those 4 came to my mind:

MicroC/OS-II: Its free and simple, but i think there are too few good resources available

LibeRTOS: I can recommend that. I used it several times for different projects. It's good it's fast and the dual kernel concept is really well done.

RTLinux: Can't tell you much about that one. Only used it once for a very small project and didn't get deep "behind the scenes" But it was fast and reliable. (and very expensive)

VxWorks: Awesome OS... From Wikipedia:

• multitasking kernel with preemptive and round-robin scheduling and fast interrupt response
• Memory protection to isolate user applications from the kernel
• SMP support
• Fast, flexible inter-process communication including TIPC
• Error handling framework
• Binary, counting, and mutual exclusion semaphores with priority inheritance
• Local and distributed message queues
• Full ANSI C compliance and enhanced C++ features for exception handling and template support
• POSIX PSE52 certified conformance
• File system.
• IPv6 Networking stack
• VxSim simulator
• Supports: C/C++/JAVA

If money is no problem: Use VxWorks! You can do anything: Upgrade your fridge, built a war machine or fly to Mars ;-)

Otherwise check out LibeRTOS...

Answer 2

If you really want ot use an RTOS, be prepared to use a native API that is way more efficient and streamlined than pthreads...

Answer 3

I have used Micrium's µC/OS-II on several projects, on SH4 and a couple of different ColdFires. I continue to recommend it for new projects today.

Micrium has just announced a major upgrade to be called µC/OS-III that will add unlimited preemptively scheduled threads, as well as a round-robin scheduler for equal priority threads. It doesn't appear to be for sale yet, however.

If you need the capabilities, they also have a FAT file system, a PEG graphical UI library, USB device and host, and TCP/IP available for additional license fees.

Source code to everything is included in the price, and I've always found their support to be friendly and knowledgeable.

Answer 4

With the processors you mention you seem to be into set-top boxes.

You have the choice between the ST Linux distro, which is not very stable and the OSXX distro, which is proprietary for ST, but much more stable and with nice tools for debugging and the like (I'm not so sure about OSCC and libc/pthreads)

Answer 5

Barebones/AMP - because it allows 100% control and it allows the lowest latency.

Using Linux or FreeRTOS is very comfortable but it comes with a price tag.