Selecting an RTOS

Users searching for a real-time operating system (RTOS) for their project often get overwhelmed by the variety of commercial RTOSs available today. This variety nearly guarantees that an ideal system exists for you, but you finding it is a different question.

Embedded Computing Design published a helpful article about selecting an RTOS (this article was published a couple of years ago but the information is still relevant). An important note is that the article is written for selecting an RTOS for medical equipment requiring a high degree of safety and reliability. However, these are factors that should be considered for all embedded design applications, not just medical equipment.

One very important factor that the article does not discuss is RTOS cost. It becomes a complex decision when overall cost to develop the application is balanced against the direct cost of purchasing an RTOS. One needs to consider the initial cost to purchase the RTOS, per CPU license cost, associated third-party library cost with potential to save by reducing development and maintenance costs.

Check out the article and tell me what you think. I'll include your thoughts in a future newsletter.

-Gary

Software Design Considerations

In continuation of my content series on software development process I’ve added a video on software design. It talks about important aspects to consider and also issues about designing in an agile methodology.

You can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Xf3EO02E0

Also, I'll be recording some new videos soon. Feel free to suggest a topic you're interested in. Thanks!

Here's My Template for Subsystem Interactions

Subsystem interactions are a tricky part of embedded system development.

I’ve experienced many projects where team members are assigned to develop a specific subsystem, and though they succeed at their individual task, they overlook how their system will interact with the other subsystems, which can lead to a dysfunctional product.

This ignorance of subsystem interactions is usually found in a bottom-up design approach, but can sometimes be found in top-down designs, in which attention to detail for performance, error handling and test strategies are all lacking. (These are not the only important requirements but for whatever reason I find them most often overlooked.)

Anyway, to help you out, I compiled a simple Excel template that displays these categories for multiple subsystems. Click here to download it: http://advanceddecisions.com/excel-sheets/ADI-Subsystem-Test-Case-Template.xlsx

[Video] 4 Critical Pieces of Software Development Processes

I just finished up a video explaining the most critical aspects of software development processes.

It's an issue that I'm fanatical about, especially because it involves basic software development strategies that can save companies tons of money and time. (And who doesn't love extra money and time?)

Anyway, the video is 4:23 long, and introduces the below topics.

• Requirements


• Design


• Testing


• Source Control

-Judi

 

P.S. Let me know what you think of it!