The Spark Gap - Episode 4
Corey and Carl debate the merits of using Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) versus bare-metal firmware for single-core embedded systems. Carl argues that RTOS solutions like ChibiOS and FreeRTOS provide necessary abstraction for changing design requirements, efficient timer management, and interrupt handling, while Corey contends that bare-metal code offers lower latency, no licensing costs, and full control over platform-specific optimizations. They discuss specific RTOS implementations, licensing models like GPL, and the trade-offs between development time and hardware performance.