Developing Linux applications on a Windows host with coexistence of other real-time OSes

Title

Developing Linux applications on a Windows host with coexistence of other real-time OSes

Author

Morten Mossige

Author Information

ABB Robotics (ABB Corporate Research), Norway

Abstract

As Linux is getting more and more popular in the embedded software community, new types of developers are starting to use Linux as a real-time OS. Historically, developers developing applications running under Linux, have used Linux hosts as developing platform. The developers have had quite strong knowledge in Linux. But now we see more and more that developers from other domains are starting to develop applications, including developers from the Windows world. Many developers won't or can't use Linux hosts as developing platform both due to requirements of coexistence with other applications or due to company rules, or simply because of lack of knowledge. This paper will explain how ABB Robotics has solved the challenge of being able to develop applications for multiple targets including Linux, uClinux, vxWorks, DSP/BIOS and other from a single command shell on a pc running XP. It will present some of the tools used, and how debugging is done. It will also discuss how the OS is abstracted away from the developer, allowing him to focus on the application and not on the various properties of the OS, including how Linux fit into this setup.

Keywords

robotics, winxp, linux, rt-preemt, vxworks, OS-abstraction