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+>eCos Overview</TITLE
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+TITLE="Key Features"
+HREF="ecos-key-features.html"><LINK
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+>eCos User Guide</TH
+></TR
+><TR
+><TD
+WIDTH="10%"
+ALIGN="left"
+VALIGN="bottom"
+><A
+HREF="ecos-key-features.html"
+ACCESSKEY="P"
+>Prev</A
+></TD
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+>Next</A
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+><HR
+ALIGN="LEFT"
+WIDTH="100%"></DIV
+><DIV
+CLASS="CHAPTER"
+><H1
+><A
+NAME="ECOS-OVERVIEW">Chapter 2. <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> Overview</H1
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is an open source, configurable,
+ portable, and royalty-free embedded real-time operating
+ system. The following text expands on these core aspects that
+ define <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+>.</P
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is provided as an open source
+ runtime system supported by the GNU open source development
+ tools. Developers have full and unfettered access to all
+ aspects of the runtime system. No parts of it are proprietary
+ or hidden, and you are at liberty to examine, add to, and
+ modify the code as you deem necessary. These rights are
+ granted to you and protected by the GNU Public License (GPL).
+ An exception clause has been added to the eCos license which
+ limits the circumstances in which the license applies to other
+ code when used in conjunction with eCos. This exception grants
+ you the right to freely develop and distribute applications
+ based on <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+>. You are not expected
+ or required to make your embedded applications or any
+ additional components that you develop freely available so
+ long as they are not derived from
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> code. We of course welcome all
+ contributions back to <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> such as
+ board ports, device drivers and other components, as this
+ helps the growth and development of
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+>, and is of benefit to the
+ entire <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> community. See <A
+HREF="ecos-licensing.html"
+>Chapter 3</A
+> for more details.</P
+><P
+>One of the key technological innovations in
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is the configuration
+ system. The configuration system allows the application writer
+ to impose their requirements on the run-time components, both
+ in terms of their functionality and implementation, whereas
+ traditionally the operating system has constrained the
+ application's own implementation. Essentially, this enables
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> developers to create their own
+ application-specific operating system and makes
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> suitable for a wide range of
+ embedded uses. Configuration also ensures that the resource
+ footprint of <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is minimized as
+ all unnecessary functionality and features are removed. The
+ configuration system also presents
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> as a component
+ architecture. This provides a standardized mechanism for
+ component suppliers to extend the functionality of
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> and allows applications to be
+ built from a wide set of optional configurable run-time
+ components. Components can be provided from a variety of
+ sources including: the standard
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> release; commercial third
+ party developers or open source contributors.</P
+><P
+>The royalty-free nature of <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> means that you can develop and
+deploy your application using the standard <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> release without
+incurring any royalty charges. In addition, there are no up-front
+license charges for the <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> runtime source code and associated
+tools. We provide, without charge, everything necessary for basic
+embedded applications development.</P
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is designed to be portable to a
+wide range of target architectures and target platforms including 16,
+32, and 64 bit architectures, MPUs, MCUs and DSPs. The
+<SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> kernel, libraries and runtime
+components are layered on the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), and
+thus will run on any target once the HAL and relevant device drivers
+have been ported to the target's processor architecture and
+board. Currently <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> supports a large
+range of different target architectures:
+ </P
+><P
+></P
+><UL
+><LI
+><P
+>ARM, Intel StrongARM and XScale</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Fujitsu FR-V</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Hitachi SH2/3/4</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Hitachi H8/300H </P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Intel x86</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>MIPS</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Matsushita AM3x</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Motorola PowerPC</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Motorola 68k/Coldfire</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>NEC V850</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>Sun SPARC</P
+></LI
+></UL
+><P
+>including many of the popular variants of these architectures
+and evaluation boards.</P
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> has been designed to support
+applications with real-time requirements, providing features such as
+full preemptability, minimal interrupt latencies, and all the
+necessary synchronization primitives, scheduling policies, and
+interrupt handling mechanisms needed for these type of
+applications. <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> also provides all the
+functionality required for general embedded application support
+including device drivers, memory management, exception handling, C,
+math libraries, etc. In addition to runtime support, the
+<SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> system includes all the tools
+necessary to develop embedded applications, including
+<SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> software configuration and build
+tools, and GNU based compilers, assemblers, linkers, debuggers, and
+simulators.</P
+><P
+>To get the most out of <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> you
+should visit the <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> open source
+developers site: <A
+HREF="http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/"
+TARGET="_top"
+>http://sources.redhat.com/ecos/</A
+>.</P
+><P
+>The site is dedicated to the <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+>
+ developer community and contains a rich set of resources
+ including news, FAQ, online documentation, installation guide,
+ discussion and announcement mailing lists, and runtime and
+ development tools downloads. The site also supports anonymous
+ CVS and WEBCVS access to provide direct access to the latest
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> source base. </P
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> is released as open source
+ software because we believe that this is the most effective
+ software development model, and that it provides the greatest
+ benefit to the embedded developer community as a whole. As part
+ of this endeavor, we seek the input and participation of
+ <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> developers in its continuing
+ evolution. Participation can take many forms including:</P
+><P
+></P
+><UL
+><LI
+><P
+>providing us with feedback on how <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> might be made more
+useful to you - by taking part in the ongoing mailing list discussions
+and by submitting problem reports covering bugs, documentation issues,
+and missing features</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>contributing bug fixes and enhancement patches</P
+></LI
+><LI
+><P
+>contributing new code including device drivers, board
+ports, libraries, and other runtime components</P
+></LI
+></UL
+><P
+>Our long term aim is to make <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> a
+rich and ubiquitous standard infrastructure for the development of
+deeply embedded applications. This will be achieved with the
+assistance of the <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> developer community
+cooperating to improve <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> for all. We
+would like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks to the many
+<SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> developers who have already
+contributed feedback, ideas, patches, and code that have augmented and
+improved this release.</P
+><P
+><SPAN
+CLASS="emphasis"
+><I
+CLASS="EMPHASIS"
+>The <SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
+> Maintainers</I
+></SPAN
+></P
+></DIV
+><DIV
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+SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
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+ACCESSKEY="P"
+>Prev</A
+></TD
+><TD
+WIDTH="34%"
+ALIGN="center"
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+><A
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+ACCESSKEY="H"
+>Home</A
+></TD
+><TD
+WIDTH="33%"
+ALIGN="right"
+VALIGN="top"
+><A
+HREF="ecos-licensing.html"
+ACCESSKEY="N"
+>Next</A
+></TD
+></TR
+><TR
+><TD
+WIDTH="33%"
+ALIGN="left"
+VALIGN="top"
+>Key Features</TD
+><TD
+WIDTH="34%"
+ALIGN="center"
+VALIGN="top"
+><A
+HREF="user-guide-introduction.html"
+ACCESSKEY="U"
+>Up</A
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+WIDTH="33%"
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+><SPAN
+CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
+>eCos</SPAN
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