Re: Questions about Ada and embedded systems

Re: Questions about Ada and embedded systems

[Jeff C,]

"jacques" <jlanfranchi@aei.ca> wrote in message news:412a98b8_3@aeinews....
> Hi,
>
> I've some question concerning Ada and embedded systems.
> Currently I'm working on a new project concerning intrumentation and data 
> acquisition. I wish i could do it using Ada I've discovered few month ago. 
> Giving the problems we have to resolve Ada seem to be the most adequate 
> tool.
> After I did some research on internet that didn't gave me answer I'm 
> looking for, I post this message expecting some informations I couldn't 
> find..
>
> Briefly the system will be based on an Intel Xscale processor with a CAN 
> Bus, touch screen LCD display, USB, memory card, network communication, 
> ... The system should have a GUI interface, and be real time .
>
> 1) Is it possible to develop software in Ada for an embedded system built 
> on an Xscale processor with Windows CE as operating system? And for 
> Windows XP Embedded?
> In case of a positive answer, which development tools are needed?
>
> 2) Windows is the first choice as operating system. The second is Linux, 
> so is there a real time embedded distribution which is more "Ada 
> friendly"?
> Which Ada development tool is the best for targetting a Linux embedded OS 
> running on a Xscale processor?


I think you might be out of luck for this case. AdaCore Technologies 
supports ARM/XScale with a vxWorks target OS. I am not aware of any Ada 
compiler targetting windows CE or Windows XP Embedded (with an Xscale 
target)

As for Linux, I am not aware of any Linux targetted Ada compilers for 
Xscale.

You could try to talk to the people at AdaCore Technologies (www.gnat.com) 
and see if there is something
unpublished that meets your needs.


Greenhills (one of the other big Ada vendors) does not target Xscale with 
their Ada compiler but probably could be convinced but I don't think they 
support your desired target OSs (they tend to target either bare machine, 
vxWorks or their own embedded OS)

The rest of big the Ada vendors (IBM/Rational, OC Systems, DDCI, RRSoftware, 
Aonix) don't appear
to meet your needs either.

The other minor problem in your requirements is that you said it must be 
real-time...But Windows XP Embedded is not really real-time (though it is 
similar to Linux in that there are add ons to make it real-time like).

Ha

Re: Questions about Ada and embedded systems

[Stephen Leake]

"jacques" <jlanfranchi@aei.ca> wrote in message news:412a98b8_3@aeinews....

> 1) Is it possible to develop software in Ada for an embedded system built 
> on an Xscale processor with Windows CE as operating system? And for 
> Windows XP Embedded?
> In case of a positive answer, which development tools are needed?

> 2) Windows is the first choice as operating system. The second is
> Linux, so is there a real time embedded distribution which is more
> "Ada friendly"? Which Ada development tool is the best for
> targetting a Linux embedded OS running on a Xscale processor?

Since there is not an available compiler for Ada on Xscale, you'll
have to port one. Does GCC support C on Xscale (on any OS)? If so, you
can get a non-tasking Ada pretty quickly by porting GNAT. If the OS
you choose has a Posix thread interface, you can get tasking pretty
quickly as well.

If you decide to try porting GNAT, you should definitely contact Ada
Core (www.gnat.com). They might have other customers interested in
Xscale, and you could share their work.

-- 
-- Stephe

Re: Questions about Ada and embedded systems

[Jerome Hugues]

> Since there is not an available compiler for Ada on Xscale, you'll
> have to port one. Does GCC support C on Xscale (on any OS)? If so, you
> can get a non-tasking Ada pretty quickly by porting GNAT. If the OS
> you choose has a Posix thread interface, you can get tasking pretty
> quickly as well.

There is one http://www.gnat.com/gnatpro_vxwork.php ;)

Read at the bottom of the page

" StrongARM/XScale target, hosted on x86 Windows NT/2000/XP"

> If you decide to try porting GNAT, you should definitely contact Ada
> Core (www.gnat.com). They might have other customers interested in
> Xscale, and you could share their work.

Since the original post mention the target runs Windows CE, the hardest
part would be to port the run time to this target ..

-- 
Jerome