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Which RTOS as substitution to uC/OS-II?

Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
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Hi all, 

I've been thinking about trying a different OS than uC/OS-II.  

First, I would like to know about the licensing of ucLinux and eCos - are both of them free? 

My other question is what are the pros/cons of these systems compared to uC...it's the only OS I've used so far, so any information would be greatly appreciated. 

How about some TCP/IP stack? Can I just use lwIP stack with any of them? 

 

Thanks.
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
535 Views

Hi CableGuy, 

 

ucLinux and eCos are both under GPL-licence. So it's free, but first read the licenseterms. I believe they both have an TCP/IP-stack of their own which is imho better to start with then the lwIP-stack. 

 

Good luck. 

 

Danny
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
535 Views

 

--- Quote Start ---  

originally posted by dannyjacobs@Nov 28 2005, 03:05 AM 

hi cableguy, 

 

uclinux and ecos are both under gpl-licence. so it's free, but first read the licenseterms. i believe they both have an tcp/ip-stack of their own which is imho better to start with then the lwip-stack. 

 

good luck. 

 

danny 

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--- quote end ---  

 

--- Quote End ---  

 

 

Do you know if there is some real drawback of eCOS or Linux compared to uC/OS-II? Is there any reason to avoid these systems from the viewpoint of scheduling, simplicity of use (quite important - uC has an excellent description in the book that came with NiosII devkit), documentation and transparency (since I have never worked with Linux before I am afraid of getting lost in it and not quite understand what exactly I am doing and when...)
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Altera_Forum
Honored Contributor II
535 Views

Hi CableGuy, 

 

> since I have never worked with Linux before I am afraid of getting lost in it and 

> not quite understand what exactly I am doing and when... 

 

I always consider this inevitable when learning something new ... so documentation and 

support (along with your own sweat) become really important. If you take some time 

to master POSIX (especially pthreads and friends), or if you&#39;re already comfortable 

with pthreads, you&#39;ll do fine with eCos or Linux (and many other RTOS flavors as well). 

 

You might also want to take a look at Nucleus, which now supports Nios-II: 

 

http://www.acceleratedtechnology.com/pressrel/at_niosii.html (http://www.acceleratedtechnology.com/pressrel/at_niosii.html

http://www.acceleratedtechnology.com/altera/ (http://www.acceleratedtechnology.com/altera/

 

I&#39;ve never used Nucleus ... at least not yet. It&#39;s not free, but it does support POSIX, 

and you do get the source. From what I&#39;ve heard so far, the support is good. 

 

Regards, 

--Scott
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