Some RTOS (real-time operating system) vendors offer source code access, but typically only under NDA (non-disclosure agreement), and at added licensing cost. One exception is Microsoft, which about a year ago began distributing the
full source to Windows CE 6.0 at no extra cost to developers willing to acknowledge a relatively straightforward "
shared source" license.
Six-year history of Windows CE "shared source"
(click to enlarge; source: Microsoft)Developers can now access shared source code for the Windows CE kernel -- as well as certain device drivers and application-level components -- directly from within the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 distribution package. To do this, they click on a function in the IDE that indicates their acceptance of the licenses and installs the shared source.
Of course, access to source code is a given with free and commercial Linux variants, since the
GPL license governs the kernel, if not all available device drivers.
The EDC survey involved about 500 embedded systems developers. Of those, about 40 percent target embedded Linux. The most popular RTOSes in the survey -- likely VxWorks and Windows CE, although EDC did not say -- were used by about 20 percent of respondents, EDC said.
EDC CEO John Andrews stated, "Developers working with embedded systems really need access to the RTOS source code in order to optimize their applications efficiently. This is one of the reasons that proprietary RTOSes created in-house for a specific system have long been popular, and now it's a primary motivating factor in the adoption of Embedded Linux."
Other findings from the August, 2007 survey include:
- Tools rank above cost and performance when evaluating microprocessors
- FPGAs (field-programmable gate arrays) are now "as popular as microcontrollers and microprocessors" in embedded designs
- Two-thirds of developers working on embedded systems for multi-core processors are targeting homogeneous cores
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