VxWORKS,® the runtime component of the TORNADO® II embedded development platform, is the most widely adopted real-time operating system (RTOS) in the embedded industry. With a reputation for performance, flexibility, compatibility, and scalability, VxWORKS provides an extremely reliable runtime platform for embedded application development. TORNADO II also includes a comprehensive suite of cross-development tools and utilities, and a full range of communications options from the host connection to the target.

VxWORKS is flexible, with more than 1800 powerful application program interfaces (APIs); scalable, from the simplest to the most complex product designs; reliable, used in mission-critical applications ranging from anti-lock braking systems to interplanetary exploration; compatible, works with numerous industry standards; and available, can run on all popular CPU platforms. The VxWORKS RTOS comprises the core capabilities of the WIND® Microkernel along with advanced networking support, powerful file system and I/O management, and support for C++ and other runtime standards. These core capabilities can be combined with add-on operating system runtime extensions available from Wind River and its wide range of Partner Program partners.

High-performance microkernel design :

 At the heart of the VxWORKS runtime system is the highly efficient WIND Microkernel. This Microkernel supports a full range of real-time features, including fast multitasking; interrupt support, and both preemptive and round-robin scheduling. The microkernel design minimizes system overhead and enables fast, deterministic response to external events.

Scalable runtime software :

 VxWORKS is designed for scalability, enabling developers to allocate scarce memory resources to their application, rather than to the operating system. From deeply embedded designs requiring a few kilobytes of memory, to complex high-end real-time systems (where more operating system functions are needed), the developer may choose from over 100 different options, to create highly customize configurations. Individual modules may be used in development and omitted in production systems.

Comprehensive networking facilities :  

VxWORKS was the first real-time operating system to integrate industry-standard TCP/IP networking facilities optimized for real-time applications. This tradition of innovation continues with standard support for the latest Berkeley networking features, including:

BSD 4.4 TCP/IP networking

IP, IGMP, CIDR, TCP, UDP, ARP

RIP v1/v2

Standard Berkeley sockets, zbufs (a.k.a., zero-copy sockets)

SLIP, CSLIP

BOOTP, DNS, DHCP, TFTP

NFS, SUN RPC

FTP, rlogin, rsh, telnet

SNTP

 POSIX Compliance : 

VxWORKS supports the POSIX 1003.1b and POSIX 1003.1c specifications and basic system calls in the 1003.1 specification, including process primitives, files and directories, I/O primitives, language services, and directory handling. In addition, VxWORKS adheres to the final  approved standard for POSIX 1003.1b Real-Time Extensions, including POSIX-compliant asynchronous I/O, counting semaphores, message queues, signals, memory management (page locking), and scheduling control. The pThreads implementation of POSIX 1003.1c comes standard in VxWORKS.

Broad Silicon Support : 

Wind River supports a wide range of the latest RISC and CISC architectures so users can select the right silicon for their designs. VxWORKS’ open design is highly portable and complete across all supported processors, allowing application migration between architectures with minimal effort. Easy porting to custom hardware Architecture support is strengthened by the availability of the industry's broadest selection of validated Board Support Packages (BSPs). BSPs provide users with a turnkey software package that enables VxWORKS to run out of the box on Wind River’s extensive set of evaluation boards, as well as many thirdparty evaluation boards, reference boards, and popular COTS boards.

Hardware reference designs and tools :

In addition to offering Wind River’s hardware reference designs with VxWORKS-ready BSP’s, Wind River offers specification details for chip evaluation and early hardware and software

development. VxWORKS also supports a full line of optional hardware-assisted tools to aid in the entire development cycle, from board bring-up to real-time trace and data acquisition.  

The hardware-assisted tools are integrated within the TORNADO II tools to allow developers to access and debug their application from a familiar development environment. These tools extend the power of Tornado development to designs that do not have Ethernet ports or to debugging Ethernet drivers.

 Operating system accessories : 

Accessory products give developers access to an unprecedented range of features and help to extend the VxWORKS platform. These products include the BSP Developer’s Kit (included as

standard), support for flash file systems with TrueFFS for Tornado, support for graphics applications, Java, virtual memory management with VxVMI,™ multiprocessing with VxMP™

and VxFusion,™ and connectivity through the Common Object Model (COM, included as standard) and the USB Developer’s Kit.

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