ELinOS is a commercial development environment for

embedded Linux Operating systems based on the Linux kernel are used in embedded systems such as consumer electronics (eg. set-top box A set-top box (STB), also colloquially known as a cable box and historically television decoder, is an information applianc ...

. It consists of a Linux distribution for the target

embedded system An embedded system is a computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is ''embedded'' ...

and development tools for a development host computer. The development host computer usually is a standard desktop computer running

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ser ...

. The Linux system and the application software for the target device are both created on the development host. ELinOS focuses on industrial applications. For that purpose optional extensions for the Linux kernel are provided. The kernel will always be specifically compiled for the embedded system.

Userspace A modern computer operating system usually segregates virtual memory into user space and kernel space. Primarily, this separation serves to provide memory protection and hardware protection from malicious or errant software behaviour. Kernel ...

applications are provided as precompiled binaries in order to save time for compilation. Most of the ELinOS software packages are open source and licensed under the

GPL The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general u ...

. ELinOS provides

as a standalone

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

or it can be integrated into the PikeOS

virtualization In computing, virtualization or virtualisation (sometimes abbreviated v12n, a numeronym) is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something at the same abstraction level, including virtual computer hardware platforms, stor ...

platform if safety and security demands cannot be met by Linux alone. The latter might be the case if a certification according to a strict industry standard is required. Eclipse is the technical basis for the functionality provided by the

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...

(IDE) on the development host. ELinOS was first published in 1999.

Typical workflow

1. Select the hardware of the target

* Choose one of the provided

board support package In embedded systems, a board support package (BSP) is the layer of software containing hardware-specific boot firmware and device drivers and other routines that allow a given embedded operating system, for example a real-time operating system ( ...

s (BSP) or configure the hardware on your own 2. Select the features wanted on the target system * Examples are

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

support, remote debugging support, networking functionality and a choice of networking servers 3. Compile the Linux kernel * Based on the previous steps an individual kernel configuration will be proposed. It can be modified manually. 4. Generate the target's file system image * Based on the previous steps contents for an individual file system will be proposed. Files can be added or removed. Dependencies will be checked and can be resolved automatically. 5. Deploy the file system image to the target system. * The result of the previous step is a single

binary file A binary file is a computer file that is not a text file. The term "binary file" is often used as a term meaning "non-text file". Many binary file formats contain parts that can be interpreted as text; for example, some computer document fil ...

which the target device can boot 6. Test and analyze the software on the target system using the tracing tool * Monitor the system's behavior and optimize the application or the system configuration 7. Debug the application software on the target system using the

debugger A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to test and debug other programs (the "target" program). The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the programmer to track its executi ...

* Faults can be debugged using the IDE on the development host

Supported hardware

The following processor architectures are supported,Supported Hardware
for ELinOS with a large set of

s (BSP) for various boards: *

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between th ...

(v7) *

ARM64 AArch64 or ARM64 is the 64-bit extension of the ARM architecture family. It was first introduced with the Armv8-A architecture. Arm releases a new extension every year. ARMv8.x and ARMv9.x extensions and features Announced in October 2011, AR ...

(v8) * PowerPC (32Bit and 64Bit) *

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging ...

Symmetric multiprocessing is supported if a

multi-core processor A multi-core processor is a microprocessor on a single integrated circuit with two or more separate processing units, called cores, each of which reads and executes program instructions. The instructions are ordinary CPU instructions (such ...

is used.

End of Life Overview

References

External links

SYSGO's official site
{{linux-distro Embedded Linux distributions Virtualization software for Linux Linux distributions