Web site: sources.redhat.com/ecos/ (not active) | ecos.sourceware.org
Origin: USA
Category: Embedded
Desktop environment: CLI
Architecture: x86, ARM, SPARC, MIPS, PowerPC
Based on: Independent
Wikipedia: eCos
Media: Install
The last version | Released: 4.1 | June 28, 2017
eCos – an OS runtime compatible with the Japanese norm µITron, with complete source code available, and free to use. eCos is a free open source real-time operating system intended for embedded applications. The highly configurable nature of eCos allows the operating system to be customised to precise application requirements, delivering the best possible run-time performance and an optimised hardware resource footprint.
eCos is provided as an open source runtime system supported by the GNU open source development tools. Developers have full and unfettered access to all aspects of the runtime system. No parts of it are proprietary or hidden, and you are at liberty to examine, add to, and modify the code as you deem necessary. These rights are granted to you and protected by the eCos license. It also grants you the right to freely develop and distribute applications based on eCos. We welcome all contributions back to eCos such as board ports, device drivers and other components, as this helps the growth and development of eCos, and is of benefit to the entire eCos community.
One of the key technological innovations in eCos is the configuration system. The configuration system allows the application writer to impose their requirements on the run-time components, both in terms of their functionality and implementation, whereas traditionally the operating system has constrained the application’s own implementation. Essentially, this enables eCos developers to create their own application-specific operating system and makes eCos suitable for a wide range of embedded uses. Configuration also ensures that the resource footprint of eCos is minimized as all unnecessary functionality and features are removed. The configuration system also presents eCos as a component architecture. This provides a standardized mechanism for component suppliers to extend the functionality of eCos and allows applications to be built from a wide set of optional configurable run-time components. Components can be provided from a variety of sources including the standard eCos release, commercial third party developers and open source contributors.
Currently eCos supports 13 different target architectures:
– 68K/ColdFire
– ARM (including ARM7TDMI, ARM9TDMI, Cortex-M, StrongARM, XScale)
– CalmRISC16 and CalmRISC32 (RedBoot only)
– Fujitsu FR-V
– Fujitsu FR30
– Hitachi H8/300
– Intel x86
– Matsushita AM3x
– MIPS
– NEC V8xx
– PowerPC
– SPARC
– SuperH
The eCos net distribution is available in both Linux and Windows versions. The Linux version is tested under recent versions of the Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu distributions for x86 and should work under most Linux variants. The Windows version has been tested under Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It should also work under Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 with SP6a. Please note that eCos is no longer supported under Windows 95/98/ME.