Features and Benefits

ERIKA Enterprise and RT-Druid Features

ERIKA Enterprise

ERIKA Enterprise is an innovative OSEK/VDX RTOS for small microcontrollers.

In addition to the OSEK/VDX standard scheduling algorithm, ERIKA Enterprise implements innovative scheduling algorithms such as Fixed Priority with preemption thresholds, Stack Resource Policy (SRP), Earliest Deadline First (EDF), and resource reservations (FRSH) which can be used to schedule tasks with real-time requirements.

ERIKA Enterprise is available with a license GPL+linking exception , and has a very small footprint: typically, a minimal installation of ERIKA Enterprise consumes from 800 to 2000 bytes of code, for the implementation of a fixed priority scheduling kernel with stack sharing and binary mutexes.

Erika Enterprise main features

  • OSEK/VDX certified.
  • Real-time kernel, priority based, with stack sharing for RAM optimization.
  • Minimal multithreading RTOS interface
  • RTOS API for: Tasks, Events, Alarms, Resources, Application modes, Semaphores, Error handling.
  • Support for conformance classes (FP, BCC1, BCC2, ECC1, ECC2, EDF, FRSH) to match different application requirements;
  • Support for preemptive and non-preemptive multitasking;
  • Support for fixed priority scheduling and Preemption Thresholds;
  • Support for Earliest Deadline First (EDF) scheduling;
  • Support for stack sharing techniques, and one-shot task model to reduce the overall stack usage;
  • Support for shared resources;
  • Support for periodic activations using Alarms;
  • Support for centralized Error Handling;
  • Support for hook functions before and after each context switch.
  • GPL with Linking Exception license
 

RT-Druid

RT-Druid is the development environment for ERIKA Enterprise. Based on Eclipse, RT-Druid allows writing, compiling, and  analyzing your application in a confortable environment.

RT-Druid is composed by a set of plugin for the Eclipse Framework . The following is a list of the available plugins:

  • RT-Druid Core.
    The RT-Druid Core plugin contains all the internal metamodel representation, providing a common infrastructure for the other plugins, together with ANT scripting support.
  • RT-Druid Code Generator.
    The RT-Druid Code Generator plugin implements the OIL language compiler, together with target independent code generation routines for ERIKA Enterprise.
  • RT-Druid Code Templates manager.
    The RT-Druid Templates manager provides the possibility to easily write application templates to be used when generating a new application.

Additional plugins are also available, supporting schedulability analisys with an estimation of the response time of the application tasks.

RT-Druid main features

  • Development environment based on the Eclipse IDE;
  • Support for the OIL language for the specification of the RTOS configuration;
  • Rich text editor for OIL configuration file editing
  • Graphical configuration plugin to easily generate the OIL configuration file and to easily configure the RTOS parameters;
  • Full integration with the Cygwin development environment to provide a Unix-style scripting environment;
  • Apache ANT scripting support for code generation;
  • RT-Druid graphical editor
  • RT-Druid code generator per Erika Enterprise, including the code generator for Erika Enterprise Basic
  • Support the ORTI standard for application debugging and tracing with lauterbach debuggers

 

Benefits

  • Portable API - The Erika API implements the same API (derived from the OSEK/VDX standard) on different microcontrollers.
  • Increased performances - Highly configurable ROM footprint, high efficiency kernel, stack sharing to limit RAM consumption.
  • Multi-core support - Multi-core issues are handled automatically, simplifying the application design and verification.
  • Code placement - Easy migration from a single core to multiple cores: no changes to the application source code, only simple modifications to configuration files.
  • Open source, with source code - Erika Enterprise is available open source, with the GNU CrossTool License (also known as GPL with Linking exception). This means the software can be used without releasing the application source code. Moreover, is distributed with source code, no royalties!