335: Patching on the Surface of Mars

Embedded.fm · 25 Jun 2020 · 1h 15m · Episode 335

What this episode covers

Joel Sherrill, Director of R&D at OAR Corp and maintainer of the RTEMS open-source real-time operating system, explains why RTEMS is a robust choice for long-life embedded projects, particularly in aerospace and industrial automation. He details how RTEMS provides POSIX compliance, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) support, and advanced scheduling algorithms like Rate Monotonic Analysis to ensure deterministic performance. Sherrill also discusses the importance of community-driven driver development, the ability to patch software on Mars rovers, and the trade-offs between using a full RTOS versus a simple big-loop architecture.

Mentioned

Companies
OAR Corp, NASA, European Space Agency
Products
BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, Zynq-7000, Arty Board, Core Flight System, EPICS
Also
RTEMS

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