VxWorks

VxWorks is a real-time operating system made and sold by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA. Intel acquired Wind River Systems on July 17, 2009^[1].

VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems. Unlike "self-hosting" systems such as Unix, VxWorks development is done on a "host" machine running Linux, Unix, or Windows, cross-compiling target software to run on various "target" CPU architectures.

History

VxWorks started as an improvement on a primitive ROM chip with a 4K kernel sold by Ready Systems, now a Mentor Graphics product.^[2][3] It contained VRTX, which lacked everything from a file system to a development environment. Wind River created an accessory called VxWorks that turned the VRTX kernel into an OS and a development environment. Fiddler and Wilner had negotiated an agreement to sell VRTX with VxWorks. In 1987, anticipating that Ready Systems was going to cancel its reseller contract, Wind River developed its own kernel and a smaller, faster, lighter OS – written by an intern.^[4]

The name VxWorks is believed to be a pun (VRTX Works) on the VRTX real-time operating system.^[5]

OS overview

VxWorks ^[6] is a proprietary, real-time operating system developed by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA in 1987.

VxWorks has been ported to a number of platforms and now runs on practically any modern CPU that is used in the embedded market. This includes the x86 family, MIPS, PowerPC, Freescale ColdFire, Intel i960, SH-4 and the closely related family of ARM, StrongARM and xScale CPUs.

The key features of the current OS are:

• Multitasking kernel with preemptive and round-robin scheduling and fast interrupt response
• Memory protection to isolate user applications from the kernel
• SMP support
• Fast, flexible inter-process communication including TIPC
• Error handling framework
• Binary, counting, and mutual exclusion semaphores with priority inheritance
• Local and distributed message queues
• POSIX PSE52 certified conformance^[7]
• File system
• IPv6 networking stack
• VxSim simulator

Tornado (Development Environment for VxWorks 5.x releases)

Tornado is an Integrated development environment (IDE) for software cross-development targeting VxWorks 5.x.^[8]

Tornado consists of the following elements:

• VxWorks 5.x target operating system
• Application-building tools (cross-compiler and associated programs)
• An integrated development environment (IDE) that facilitates managing and building projects, establishing host-target communication, and running, debugging, and monitoring VxWorks applications
• VxSim simulator

Workbench (Development Environment for VxWorks 6.x releases)

Workbench replaced Tornado IDE for VxWorks 6.x^[9]. The Wind River Workbench is now built on Eclipse technology.^[10] Workbench is also the IDE for the Wind River Linux^[11] and On-Chip Debugging^[12] product lines.

Workbench for VxWorks consists of the following elements:

• Eclipse framework and Eclipse (CDT^[13]) project
• Project and Build System
• Wind River Compiler and Wind River GNU Compiler
• Debugger
• Wind River Host Shell and Kernel Shell for VxWorks
• VxWorks Kernel Configurator
• Run-time analysis tools
• VxSim simulator

Notable products using VxWorks

The Thuraya SO-2510 runs VxWorks

• Radware OnDemand Switches
• The Grass Valley Group, Jupiter router controller
• The Honda Robot ASIMO
• KUKA industrial robots
• The Northrop Grumman Globalhawk UAV
• The Airbus A400M Airlifter (in development)
• The Boeing 787 airliner (in development)
• The Boeing 747-8 airliner (in development)
• The BMW iDrive system
• Linksys WRT54G wireless routers (versions 5.0 and later)
• Xerox Phaser and other Adobe PostScript-based computer printers
• The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS)
• DIGIC II and some early DIGIC III image-processors by Canon
• Thuraya SO-2510 Satellite phone and ThurayaModule
• The Apache Longbow attack helicopter
• The ALR-67(V)3 Radar Warning Receiver used in the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet
• Siemens VDO automotive navigation systems
• Siemens AG MRI measurement control units
• External RAID controllers designed by LSI Corporation and used in IBM System Storage's DS3000 and DS4000 (formerly FAStT) plus some storage systems from Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems/StorageTek, Teradata, Dell, Sepaton, BlueArc and several other companies worldwide
• The Drobo data storage peripheral
• The GrandMA Lighting Consoles
• ETC Obsession II Console
• National Instruments cRIO-9014 and cRIO-9012 controllers
• The HughesNet HN (7000S through 9000) series satellite modems use VxWorks as firmware.
• SonicWall firewalls
• The ReplayTV home Digital video recorder.
• The Northrop Grumman X-47 Pegasus Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle. ^[14]
• RNC - Radio Network Controller - Alcatel, Huawei in 3G networks.
• AMX Controls System Devices
• Radvision 3G Communications equipment
• The Ishida Uni-7 Price Computing Scale
• Harris Stratex Wimax Base Stations

Spacecraft using VxWorks

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter uses VxWorks

• The Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE) also known as Clementine (spacecraft) ^[15]
• The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ^[16]
• The Phoenix Mars Lander^[17]
• The Deep Impact space probe
• The James Webb Space Telescope (in development)
• The Sojourner Mars Pathfinder rover^[18]
• The Spirit and Opportunity Mars Exploration Rovers ^[18][19]
• Stardust

The Clementine (spacecraft) used VxWorks

Clementine launched in 1994 running VxWorks 5.1 on a MIPS-based CPU responsible for the Star Tracker and image processing algorithms. The use of a commercial RTOS onboard a spacecraft was considered experimental at the time.

References

External links

• Wind River Homepage
• Tornado 2.0 Online Manuals
• Tornado 2.2 Online Manuals