3 ms·

How much work is being done in the RTOS space? I would think a lot, but then I hear programmers complain it’s not worth it. Are RTOSs still the future?

Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago
I’ve never heard that RTOSs are the future in general. With that said, there are a lot of great RTOS options out there today. 1) PREEMPT_RT recently brought realtime capability to mainline Linux[0]. 2) Amazon open sourced the safety-certified ThreadX[1]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PREEMPT_RT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PREEMPT_RT [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX
- tim-- 2y ago
  ThreadX was open sourced by Microsoft.
  - Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago
    You’re right! I got my wires crossed with Azure and AWS.
follower 2y ago
TL;DR: No. Maybe? Depends. It's probably reasonable to make a distinction between "Real Time" desktop/server OS (on CPUs) vs "Real Time" embedded hardware OS (on MCUs). (Even aside from any hard-/soft- real time distinction.) On the embedded side, in addition to FreeRTOS (upon which Pebble OS is built), I'm aware of others with reasonably high profile such as: * Zephyr (Linux Foundation, C): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(operating_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(operating_system) * NuttX (Apache Software Foundation, C & C++): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuttX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuttX In addition, there's also some "up & coming" Rust language projects which fall somewhere along the "framework" to "OS" spectrum (in part, via https://arewertosyet.com https://arewertosyet.com): * Tock: https://github.com/tock/tock https://github.com/tock/tock * Embassy: https://github.com/embassy-rs/embassy https://github.com/embassy-rs/embassy * Hubris: https://hubris.oxide.computer https://hubris.oxide.computer On the desktop side, I seem to recall in the past, OS such as BeOS & QNX have been presented as a possible future for real time desktop OS that hasn't arrived. As someone else already mentioned, PREEMPT_RT being merged for Linux is a recent development somewhat in this space which could have impact on both desktop & "embedded" situations but suitability varies dependent on, say, whether you're wanting to use it for audio production versus controlling some 10 tonne robot operating next to humans. Hope this at least goes some way to answering your question. :)

Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago

I’ve never heard that RTOSs are the future in general. With that said, there are a lot of great RTOS options out there today. 1) PREEMPT_RT recently brought realtime capability to mainline Linux[0]. 2) Amazon open sourced the safety-certified ThreadX[1]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PREEMPT_RT https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/PREEMPT_RT [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadX

tim-- 2y ago
ThreadX was open sourced by Microsoft.
- Zamiel_Snawley 2y ago
  You’re right! I got my wires crossed with Azure and AWS.

follower 2y ago

TL;DR: No. Maybe? Depends. It's probably reasonable to make a distinction between "Real Time" desktop/server OS (on CPUs) vs "Real Time" embedded hardware OS (on MCUs). (Even aside from any hard-/soft- real time distinction.) On the embedded side, in addition to FreeRTOS (upon which Pebble OS is built), I'm aware of others with reasonably high profile such as: * Zephyr (Linux Foundation, C): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(operating_system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zephyr_(operating_system) * NuttX (Apache Software Foundation, C & C++): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuttX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuttX In addition, there's also some "up & coming" Rust language projects which fall somewhere along the "framework" to "OS" spectrum (in part, via https://arewertosyet.com https://arewertosyet.com): * Tock: https://github.com/tock/tock https://github.com/tock/tock * Embassy: https://github.com/embassy-rs/embassy https://github.com/embassy-rs/embassy * Hubris: https://hubris.oxide.computer https://hubris.oxide.computer On the desktop side, I seem to recall in the past, OS such as BeOS & QNX have been presented as a possible future for real time desktop OS that hasn't arrived. As someone else already mentioned, PREEMPT_RT being merged for Linux is a recent development somewhat in this space which could have impact on both desktop & "embedded" situations but suitability varies dependent on, say, whether you're wanting to use it for audio production versus controlling some 10 tonne robot operating next to humans. Hope this at least goes some way to answering your question. :)