The Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) is a
free and open-source
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...
real-time operating system intended for
embedded systems and applications which need only one
process with
multiple threads. It is designed to be customizable to precise application requirements of run-time performance and hardware needs. It is implemented in the
programming languages
C and
C++ and has
compatibility layers and
application programming interface
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...
s for Portable Operating System Interface (
POSIX) and The Real-time Operating system Nucleus (
TRON) variant
µITRON The ITRON project is the first of several sub-architectures of the TRON project.
Originally undertaken in 1984, ITRON is a Japanese open standard for a real-time operating system (RTOS) initiated under the guidance of Ken Sakamura. This project aim ...
. eCos is supported by popular
SSL/TLS
Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a cryptographic protocol designed to provide communications security over a computer network. The protocol is widely used in applications such as email, instant messaging, and voice over IP, but its use in securi ...
libraries such as
wolfSSL, thus meeting all standards for embedded security.
Design
eCos was designed for devices with memory sizes in the range of a few tens or several hundred
kilobytes, or for applications with real-time requirements.
eCos runs on a wide variety of hardware platforms, including
ARM, CalmRISC,
FR-V,
Hitachi H8,
IA-32,
Motorola 68000
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand") is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector ...
, Matsushita AM3x,
MIPS,
NEC V850,
Nios II,
PowerPC
PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...
,
SPARC, and
SuperH.
The eCos distribution includes
RedBoot, an
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
application
Application may refer to:
Mathematics and computing
* Application software, computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks
** Application layer, an abstraction layer that specifies protocols and interface methods used in a c ...
that uses the eCos
hardware abstraction layer to provide
bootstrap firmware
In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide h ...
for
embedded systems.
History
eCos was initially developed in 1997 by
Cygnus Solutions which was later bought by
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an American software company that provides open source software products to enterprises. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with other offices worldwide.
Red Hat has become ass ...
. In early 2002, Red Hat ceased development of eCos and laid off the staff of the project. Many of the laid-off staff continued to work on eCos and some formed their own companies providing services for the software. In January 2004, at the request of the eCos developers, Red Hat agreed to transfer the eCos copyrights to the
Free Software Foundation in October 2005, a process finally completed in May 2008.
Non-free versions
The eCosPro
real-time operating system is a commercial
fork of eCos created by
eCosCentric which incorporates
proprietary software components. It is claimed as a "stable, fully tested, certified and supported version", with additional features that are not released as free software. On Pi Day 2017, eCosCentric announced
they had ported eCosPro to all of the Raspberry Pi models, with demonstrations at the Embedded World trade fair in Nuremberg (Germany) and releases free for non-commercial uses to follow.
See also
*
Comparison of open-source operating systems
These tables compare free software / open-source operating systems. Where not all of the versions support a feature, the first version which supports it is listed.
General information
Supported architectures
Supported hardware
Ge ...
References
External links
*
"eCos Porting Guide"article by Anthony J. Massa 2001-12-28
"Embedded Software Development with eCos"book by Anthony J. Massa 2002-11-25,
eCosCentric web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ecos
ARM operating systems
Embedded operating systems
Free software operating systems
MIPS operating systems
Real-time operating systems