RTEMS Ada Micro Kernel ( Was Ada OS Progress )

RTEMS Ada Micro Kernel ( Was Ada OS Progress )

[Michael Garrett]

I may not understand the whole picture.... ( been in managment for a while )
but
the original Ada version of rtems could be put on top of a hardware
abstraction layer, with minimal
amount of assembly, ( it probably was impelmented this way ) forming a micro
kernel, which could be the foundation of the operating system.

With suitable layers on top of this foundation ( GNORT compiled, or no
runtime ), a runtime could be provided that GNAT could call into, providing
a full Ada runtime environment on top of an all Ada kernel.

( I'm in over my head but you get the picture ).

What I think this would provide is deterministic behavior. If an all Ada OS
is to be considered, my opinion
is that it should be deterministic to a hard realtime level. This is a lofty
goal, but starting with a deterministic
all Ada micro kernel is  a good start.

QNX is built this way, on top of a small scalable micro kernel. If the goal
is an all Ada scalable OS this seems
to be an ideal way to leverage the work already done by OAR, the all Ada
micro kernel.



Michael C. Garrett
michaelgarrett@csi.com

Joel Sherrill <joel@OARcorp.com> wrote in message
news:608f3869.0109101239.5b9fdde2@posting.google.com...
> "Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org> wrote in
message news:<9nigt5$490$1@nh.pace.co.uk>...
> > I'm aware of RTEMS - it might make "A Good Start". My recollection of
what
> > it was all about was that it might be a bit limited for a full-up OS.
More
> > like an RTK and some device drivers to support an Ada implementation on
a
> > bare board.
>
> Correct RTEMS is what used to be called an executive or kernel.  It is
> not as limited as you might think though with major features like
> TCP/IP, filesystem, about 85% of POSIX 1003.1b, uITRON, and a pSOS+-like
API
> ported to about a dozen CPUs.
>
> > There might be licensing issues as well. I believe it is GPL - don't
know
> > the specifics - but it might not be A Good Thing to force any additional
> > work to fall under the GPL. (That's an opinion - others may differ on
that.)
>
> RTEMS is GPL'ed with the same type of exception as the GNAT run-time.
>
> > MDC
> > --
> > Marin David Condic
> > Senior Software Engineer
> > Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
> > Enabling the digital revolution
> > e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
> > Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/
> >
> >
> > "Michael Garrett" <michaelgarrett@csi.com> wrote in message
> > news:9nhbjd$dcg$1@suaar1aa.prod.compuserve.com...
> > > OAR had an Ada version of the RTEMS operating system a while back. I
think
> > > they have dropped support
> > > for it, but I'm sure the source is available from them. This would
> >  probably
> > > be a good starting point.
>
> It has been a long time but it can be dug up. :)
>
> When it was new, there was very little
> feedback to it.  The C implementation got a lot more interest
> and when the C version was used as the run-time for GNAT,
> it seemed to satisfy the same goal without duplicating
> effort.
>
> --
> Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
> joel@OARcorp.com                 On-Line Applications Research
> Ask me about RTEMS: a free RTOS  Huntsville AL 35805
> Support Available                (256) 722-9985



--
Michael C. Garrett
Vice President Research and Development
Medical Research Laboratories
www.mrlinc.com
michaelgarrett@csi.com