PikeOS is a commercial, hard

real-time operating system A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which ...

(RTOS) that offers a

separation kernel A separation kernel is a type of security kernel used to simulate a distributed environment. The concept was introduced by John Rushby in a 1981 paper.John Rushby, "The Design and Verification of Secure Systems," Eighth ACM Symposium on Operatin ...

based

hypervisor A hypervisor (also known as a virtual machine monitor, VMM, or virtualizer) is a type of computer software, firmware or hardware that creates and runs virtual machines. A computer on which a hypervisor runs one or more virtual machines is called ...

with multiple logical partition types for many other

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s (OS), each called a GuestOS, and applications. It enables users to build certifiable smart devices for the

Internet of things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

(IoT) according to the high quality, safety and security standards of different industries. For safety and security critical real-time applications on controller-based systems without

memory management unit A memory management unit (MMU), sometimes called paged memory management unit (PMMU), is a computer hardware unit having all memory references passed through itself, primarily performing the translation of virtual memory addresses to physical ...

(MMU) but with memory protection unit (MPU) PikeOS for MPU is available.

Overview

PikeOS was introduced in 2005 and combines a real-time operating system (RTOS) with a

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, st ...

platform and

Eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three ce ...

-based

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 a ...

(IDE) for

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'' ...

s. It is a commercial clone of

L4 microkernel family L4 is a family of second-generation microkernels, used to implement a variety of types of operating systems (OS), though mostly for Unix-like, ''Portable Operating System Interface'' ( POSIX) compliant types. L4, like its predecessor microkerne ...

. PikeOS has been developed for safety and security-critical applications with certification needs in the fields of aerospace, defense, automotive, transport, industrial automation, medical, network infrastructures, and consumer electronics. The PikeOS separation kernel (v5.1.3) is certified against

Common Criteria The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (referred to as Common Criteria or CC) is an international standard ( ISO/ IEC 15408) for computer security certification. It is currently in version 3.1 revision 5. Common Criter ...

at EAL5+. A key feature of PikeOS is an ability to safely execute applications with different safety and security levels concurrently on the same

computing platform A computing platform or digital platform is an environment in which a piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the operating system (OS), even a web browser and associated application programming interfaces, or other underlying ...

. This is done by strict spatial and temporal segregation of these applications via software partitions. A software partition can be seen as a container with pre-allocated privileges that can have access to memory,

central processing unit A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...

(CPU) time,

input/output In computing, input/output (I/O, or informally io or IO) is the communication between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world, possibly a human or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals ...

(I/O), and a predefined list of OS services. With PikeOS, the term application refers to an executable linked against the PikeOS application programming interface (API)

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

and running as a

process A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic. Things called a process include: Business and management *Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...

inside a partition. The nature of the PikeOS application programming interface ( API) allows applications to range from simple control loops up to full paravirtualized guest

s like

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, which i ...

or hardware virtualized guests. Example Resource & Time Partitioning

Software partitions are also called

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized har ...

s (VMs), because it is possible to implement a complete guest operating system inside a partition which executes independently from other partitions and thus can address use cases with mixed criticality. PikeOS can be seen as a Type-1

Supported toolchain, IDE CODEO

The Eclipse-based IDE CODEO supports system architects with graphical configuration tools, providing all the components that software engineers will need to develop embedded applications, as well as including comprehensive wizards to help embedded project development in a time-saving and cost-efficient way: * Guided configuration * Remote debugging (down to the hardware instruction level) * Target monitoring * Remote application

software deployment Software deployment is all of the activities that make a software system available for use. The general deployment process consists of several interrelated activities with possible transitions between them. These activities can occur on the p ...

* Timing analysis Several dedicated graphical editing views are supporting the system integrator to always keep the overview on important aspects of the PikeOS system configuration showing partition types, scheduling, communication channels, shared memory and IO device configuration within partitions. Projects can be easily defined with the help of reusable templates and distributed to the development groups. Users can configure predefined components for their project and can also define and add other components during the development process.

Key benefits

* Real-time operating system including Type-1 hypervisor defined for highly flexible configuration * Supports fast or secure booting times * Supporting mixed criticality via separation kernel in one system * Configuration of partitions with time and hardware resources * Kernel driver and user space drivers supported * Hardware independence between processor types and families * Easy migration processes and high portability on single- and multi-core * Developed to support certification according to multiple safety & security standards * Reduced time to market via standard development and verification tools * Wide range of supported GuestOS types: APIs * No export restriction: European solution

Certification standards

Safety certification standards according to: *

Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics RTCA, Inc. (formerly known as Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics) is a United States non-profit organization that develops technical guidance for use by government regulatory authorities and by industry. It was founded in 1935 and was re-in ...

(RTCA) – DO-178B/C *

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...

(ISO) – 26262 *

International Electrotechnical Commission The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and ...

(IEC) – 62304, 61508 * EN – 50128, 50657 Security certification standards according to: *

* SAR (?)

Partner ecosystem

SYSGO is committed to establish the technology and business partnerships that will help software engineers to achieve their goals. , SYSGO is working with about 100 partners globally. An excerpt of partners per category is mentioned below: * ''Board vendors'': Curtiss-Wright Controls Embedded Computing, Kontron, MEN or ABACO * ''Silicon vendors'': NXP, Renesas, Texas Instruments (TI), Xilinx, Infineon, NVidia or Intel * ''Software partners'': CoreAVI, wolfSSL, Aicas, AdaCore, Esterel, RTI, PrismTech, Datalight, Systerel, Imagination Technologies or RAPITA * ''Tool partners'': Lauterbach, Vector Software, Rapita, iSYSTEM * ''Supported architectures'': ARM,

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– IBM ...

, x86, or

SPARC SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture originally developed by Sun Microsystems. Its design was strongly influenced by the experimental Berkeley RISC system developed ...

(on request)

Supported GuestOS types

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

(ideally SYSGO Linux distribution ELinOS) *

POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines both the system- and user-level application programming inte ...

PSE51 with PSE52 extensions *

ARINC 653 ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Software Standard Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in safety-critical avionics real-time operating systems (RTOS). It allows the hosting of multiple applications of different ...

* RTEMS *

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

* AUTOSAR * Ada, including Ravenscar profile * and others

End-of-life overview

References

External links

* , SYSGO
PikeOS Official Product Site

PikeOS Product Note
(PDF)
PikeOS Flyer
(PDF) {{Microkernel Real-time operating systems Microkernels Virtualization software Embedded operating systems ARM operating systems Microkernel-based operating systems