AFAIK (WINotVF,A) Montavista Linux is indeed not just vanilla linux -
it has fairly mature hard RT extensions. How mature, I don't know, one
wouldn't run a nuclear power station with it perhaps (at least, *I*
haven't tried - why decommission the ZX80 when it's still doing fine, I
say...) and its latency is not at the level of TRON.
Quote: "RTLinux switches tasks in milliseconds, while ITRON switches
tasks in microseconds," source:
http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/31855.html (a year or so ago so
Montavista's product may have matured)
But a viable candidate for a phone when the alternative is Microsoft
WinCE. There will be a lot of pain/cash up front, as you say - but
that is in large part a one time thing. How much money it saves in the
big picture is not clear - but $10 here, $10 there - over 50,000,000
handsets it becomes real money.... And there is the advantage of
knowing that Microsoft can never commoditize your business. (Thought
they can attack it in the courts, by claiming patent infringement...)
The Linux announcement is interesting as it APPEARS to be pure RT Linux
from Montavista. (http://mvista.com) But a year ago Montavista were
working with TRON to create T-Linux, essentially dual kernels of Tron &
Linux that (I quote from
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS6813561316.html)
"uses T-Kernel to service real-time events and MontaVista Linux to
service ubiquitous applications needs, serving as the "T-Linux" element
of T-Engine architecture."
Has that plan bitten the dust? No T-kernel? Is the T-Engine Forum
effectively dead? (http://www.t-engine.org/) I guess Microsoft joining
didn't exactly breathe life into it, given the way Docomo feels about
Microsoft.
(Gotta luv the name - the T-engine. For a Japanese kernel pairing.
Come to think of it, isn't a T-engine what powers Tony Benn?)
Nick
Received on Tue Nov 30 18:21:47 2004