Monavista has begun to add features only available to VPC rivals in Linux: A more rapid response time that is widely used in a variety of devices, including on-board computers and video players.
Despite its commitment to embedded computing devices, montavista has never made Linux a considerable share in the embedded market. Embedded Computing devices have demanding response time requirements.
In terms of mobile communication, audio/video playback, GPS system, and radar, hard response time support is very important. This type of system task-level response time needs to be between dozens to hundreds of microseconds, which is not achieved by Linux 2.6 kernels, said diterich, a programmer at montavista.
Harf, an analyst at illuminata, said hard real-time systems are usually necessary in electronic products related to life security. However, the hard real-time operating system has a price: the average response time is slower than the traditional environment. Generally, a common operating system is enough, especially when the system has sufficient processing capabilities. He said that as hardware gets cheaper and cheaper, in many cases, more powerful hardware has become another option to replace hard real-time operating systems.
Torvalz, the originator of Linux, has some prejudice against hard real-time operating systems. He said that almost no one needs hard real-time functions, even on embedded devices. It will make the operating system more complex and increase the burden on the system. When asked whether the software of montavista will become part of the Linux kernel, he said, I personally think it is unlikely, at least for the time being.
In the real-time system market, montavista is not the only vendor that supports Linux. Traditional embedded operating systems such as Wind River and green hills have also begun to support Linux. After years of disdain, Wind River began to work with red hat to develop real-time Linux operating systems. Fsmlab is already selling a hybrid kernel system that enables Linux to run on hardware that supports hard and real-time functions. (Editor)
From: Ji shi Network
