RTOS vs Application Programming

[BabaYaga]

Hi Guys,
I have done application programming with lot of microcontroller variants like PIC, 8051, MSP430 and ARM, and I have done some complex coding as well. I have never worked with any RTOS and would like to know more about them and what are the free ones among them, and the main question is:

1 - On what basis should i select RTOS over application Programming
2 - What all RTOS's are now being used in the industry today
3 - What are the free or open source RTOS's that are available for microcontrollers
4 - What are the Pros and Cons of choosing an RTOS over application programming

I am a beginner in terms of using an RTOS but i have good knowledge of operating system concepts like semaphores, Mutexes etc.,
I would request people answering this query to please provide some links as references to your answers, it would better the understanding of the queries.

Thank you.

 

[pedroromanvr]

Here are some answers to your questions.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3611322/why-would-i-consider-using-an-rtos-for-my-embedded-project
Basically, the idea behind one RTOS is to use a complete API for many applications rather than writing the same come every time.
Some RTOS:
LynxOS
OSE
QNX
RTLinux
VxWorks
Windows CE

 

[BabaYaga]

Hi @pedroromanvr,
Thank You for the reply, can you please tell me which among these RTOS is an open source one.

 

[pedroromanvr]

Well, I found this in wikipedia, it looks very complete, all RTOS I know are listed there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_real-time_operating_systems

 

[bigdogguru]

You might want to consider FreeRTOS, which is Open Source and supports many of the targets you specified.

FreeRTOS

Official FreeRTOS Ports

Of course you could always port it to other targets.


BigDog

 

[BabaYaga]

Thank you @bigdogguru,
This is probably what i was looking for, i would start building some application using this RTOS, but first i need to learn how to port it on a supported microcontroller platform, any suggestions which one should i start off with?.
Thanks for the reply.

 

[Shantanu.ade]

As you said that you worked on 8051 and ARM controllers; I guess that you must be knowing Keil IDE.
ARM has their own RTOS called RTX. Further they have provided very good tutorials on it(Keil website).
Porting RTX using keil is piece of cake so just have a look there !

 

[BabaYaga]

Thanks @Shantanu.ade, I will have a look at it.