Title :
The impact of operating system adoption in an embedded project: A case study
Author :
Jasinski, Ricardo P. ; Moroz, Maiko R. ; Pedroni, Volnei A.
Abstract :
The use of an operating system (OS) is advocated as a means to simplify software development, freeing programmers from managing low-level hardware and providing a simpler programming interface for common tasks. The high complexity of modern desktop computers makes an OS indispensable; embedded systems, on the other hand, are limited architectures, usually severely cost- and power-constrained. Because of the additional demands imposed by an OS, embedded developers are faced with the crucial decision of whether to adopt an OS or not. In this paper, we present a case study in which a sample application (an embedded weather station) was developed under three different scenarios: without any OS, using the μC/OS-II real-time OS, and using the uClinux general-purpose OS. An FPGA and an SoPC were used to provide a flexible hardware platform able to accommodate all three configurations. The adoption of an OS provided a reduction of up to 48% in development time; on the other hand, it increased program memory requirements in at least 71%.
Keywords :
Linux; embedded systems; field programmable gate arrays; operating systems (computers); system-on-chip; μC-OS-II real-time OS; FPGA; OS; SoPC; desktop computers; embedded project; embedded systems; embedded weather station; field programmable gate array; low-level hardware management; operating system adoption; program memory requirements; simpler programming interface; software development; system-on-programmable-chip; uClinux general-purpose OS; Hardware; Libraries; Linux; Memory management; Operating systems; Prototypes; SoPC; embedded system; operating system; uClinux;
Conference_Titel :
Programmable Logic (SPL), 2012 VIII Southern Conference on
Conference_Location :
Bento Goncalves
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4673-0184-8
DOI :
10.1109/SPL.2012.6211777
