Using A Public Domain Real-Time Kernel on a
VME/Ethernet Based Control System

David E. Eisert
Synchrotron Radiation Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison

There are many options available when choosing a real-time kernel, from full featured operating systems to writing your own kernel. The cost of these systems also reflects a large range, from tens of thousands to only a few hundred dollars. Recently there has been added yet another option, well documented real-time kernels that have been submitted to the public domain. These include Chimera (Carnegie Mellon University), RTEMS (U.S. Military), and mC/OS (Jean J. Labrosse). We selected the mC/OS kernel because it is small and has the required capabilities. Although the kernel was ported to the system in a matter of days, several months of development were required to write device drivers for the
processor board. This paper will discuss why we selected the mC/OS kernel, the effort required to implement this kernel, and our experience with the completed system.