Operating system projects

AllOS/Alliance OS
The Alliance Operating system Project had choose the target since 1998 to create a new stable operating system which is based on the Stanford Caching Kernel Model. Originally this project has split from the Freedows project. Modifications at the source code were published last in March 2001. The project was stopped in meanwhile.

AMX
The real time operating system AMX is from the company Kadak. It is used where everywhere there it depends on time critical reaction times. The medical area, telecommunication, control of industrial plants, data acquisition, automation and space-travel belongs to the fields of application. For embedded devices AMX is the basis of PalmOS version earlier than 5. AMX is availabe for different architectures and was used for the first time in 1980.

Features:
- compact structure
- short response times
- interruption of processes after priority
- preemptive, priority controlled task planner

AMX kernel variants:
- AMX 86, operates with or without MS-DOS and BIOS
- AMX 386/ET, 80386, 80486, Pentium processors
- AMX 68000, 680x0 and 683xx processors
- AMX CFire, ColdFire processors
- AMX PPC32, PowerPC processors
- AMX 4-ARM, ARM, StrongARM and XScale processors
- AMX 4-Thumb, ARM7TDMI and other Thumb processors
- AMX MA32, MIPS32 processors

AROS (Amiga research Operating system) has the target, to became a compatible operating system to AmigaOS 3.1 on the x86 platform and to port for other platforms. The project started at the end of 1995. Many improvements flow into the development, the source code was put under the APL licence which is derived from the Mozilla Public License.

CRUX is a Linux distribution which define itself from other distributions by a slim basic installation. Applications for the same task were reduced on two different programs. Current software from the GNU software pool flows together with the latest Linux kernel into new releases. Different optimized versions exist for modern x86 processors.

The version CRUX 2.1 was published in April 2005, version CRUX 2.2 one year later.

The Freedows project plans to release a open source operating system under the GPL only for the x86 platform. Freedows shall emulate different operating systems and be compatible to applications, such as for Windows or Linux. No version was published till now, the content of the Freedows website were not updated any more for a long time. This project was stopped in 2002.

LynxOS is an real time operating system with short latencies. It is particularly suitable for time-critical applications, the performance can be increased linearly by additional hardware. LynxOS is binary compatibly to Linux and supports network applications and the POSIX Standard. With version 4.0 a performance increase of 30% was reached opposite to the pre-version.

Micriµm with his µC/OS-II real time kernel supports preemptive multitasking and finds his use on micro controllers and embedded systems. The "µC/GUI" allows the design of user interfaces and with "µC/FS" a high-speed and efficient file system is available.

Miray µnOS supports several processor families and was designed for embedded systems. The efficient real time Microkernel Sphere SP 2.0 is offered currently. The version µnOS 0.98 was released in July 2003.

Mungi is a single address space operating system (SASOS) on a 64-bit base. It is open source and is released under the GPL licence. By the SASOS design it differs from typical operating system structures. The sourcecode of the version 1.2 was published in September 2002.

Microware OS-9 was developed by the company RadiSys Corporation. It is a modularly built up real time OS for small devices and has preemptive multitasking. It can dynamically assign resources to prefered processes. Applications use the shared libraries, the file system is built up hierarchically. OS-9 can be operated without harddisk storage, it manages the system modules directly in the memory. This operating system does not allow programs direct hardware access by his architecture. The MGR Window Manager is used as user interface with X-Window. OS-9 supports processors of the architectures m68k, ARM/StrongARM, IXP1200, MIPS, PowerPC, SPARC, SuperH and x86/Pentium.

PaulOS was designed by Paul Sheer for small devices which shall be used for application development. It supports 16-bit, 32-bit and 64-bit processors. The file system follows the POSIX standard. Applications are executed in the single threading procedure with a very low latency. Many network applications were ported by Linux and come by the TCP stack from BSD and is used for example as mini-web server. The version 1.3.1 was published in April 2005.

PROLOGUE is a pure text oriented multitasking and multi-user operating system for x86 CPUs. Originally it was developed by Honeywell BULL as a very stable working environment for industry software as used by human doctors or workers. Successor of PROLOGUE is the operating system TWIN Server.

TinyOS 1.0 bases on a component model which can be adapted flexibly to embedded devices. It is designed for minimal hardware requirements.

TriangleOS in the current version 0.0.3 of 30-4-2003 was developed by Wim Cool. It was programmed in C and assembler on the x86 platform with network abilities. For the version 0.0.5 a new Virtual file & Database System as well as a new user interface is researched.

v2os 0.64c is an assembler operating system which is freely developed. v2os is still in development, provided applications already demonstrate the abilities.

brickOS (formerly legOS) (last review: July 2003) is a open source operating system for robots from the Lego Mindstorm Kits. It supports all RSX subsystems, preemptive multitasking, infrared technique and the dynamic memory management as well as the dynamic load of programs and driver software.

Visopsys is developed since 1997, is open source and an independent development. The user interface is kept simple and functional. The version 0.62 was published in April 2006.
Operating systems for cars

Operating systems in automobiles are used for all sorts of control and security purposes. For example the air conditioner, instrument panel, anti-lock braking system, airbags, comfort functions are connected to the CAN bus. The car manufacturers need high demands on such operating systems. In Germany these software must primarily be OSEK certified if they are in relation with the CAN bus. OSEK or OSEK/VDX is such a specification for distributed control units and the API. Many important companies like BMW, Daimler Crysler, Siemens, Motorola, Infineon, Mercedes Benz and still many more are involved in this specification which was suggested as an ISO standard.

OSEK/VDX 2.2.1 specification (16-01-2003)
- for the first time version 1.0 published on 11-2-1995
- defines multitasking behaviour and API for system services in C
- for distributed 1 processor systems
- real time requirements
- interrupt and task behaviour
- minimal hardware requirements
- scalability
- portability
- resources management
- error handling, application and system errors
Operating systems of the Eighties

EOS is an operating system developed in Germany, was written in the programming language C and has compared to CP/M 3.1 more commands.

Eumel (Extendable Multi User Microprocessor Elan System) was spread a little and was developed by the GMD (Society for Mathematics and Data processing) and the "Hochschulrechenzentrum Bielefeld" (University in Germany/Bielefeld). It is designed as an multiuser system and contains the programming language Elan (Elementary Language).

Famos (Microcomputer Systems Inc.) was only little spread on the market like PDOS and was used for multiuser systems. PDOS had the markable feature, that it was developed for processors of the series MC 6800 and TI 9900 and is designed especially for realtime applications.

Oasis runs on different embedded computers for business independend and business specific application software. It was developed by Phase One Systems Inc., the abbreviation stands for Online Application System Interactive Software. Oasis runs on 8-bit and 16-bit processors like the Z80, 8088, 8086, 68000. It was used for singleuser and multiuser systems.

Prologue is based on the in 1975 developed operating system BAL and was developed in France. It was developed more for customers of multiuser systems, software and system solution companys which wanted more advanced application solutions. The Prologue architecture contains different layers which guarantee the greatest measure in portability at different hardware configurations. The system core "Nueleus" of the operating system was programmed mainly in assemblers, however the source code also partly consists of "C" and "BAL". The availability of the programming language BAL (Business Application Language) increases the value of this operating system. Many commands for data communications, file and database management, graphic and more became directly integrated so additional routines are no longer necessarily.

System informations:
- real multiuser and multitasking operating system
- runs on Intel 8086/8088 computers
- can manage up to eight workplaces
- up to 1 (one) mbyte RAM, at least 128 kbytes
- can manage storage devices with at most 512 mbyte per drive
- needs 60-70 kbytes of RAM- dynamic memory management
- time controlled program flow
- spooling function for printers
- supports index sequential access (ISAM) to harddisk storage devices
- supports the programming language Dialogue II (similar to dBaseIII)
Operating systems produced for VEB Robotron
The personal computers "AC A 7100" from the DDR (German Democratic Republic) VEB (Nationally-owned company) Kombinat (compareable with a company) Robotron was delivered with the basic equipment K1710 monitor with the model number K 7229.22 as well as the keyboard K 7637.9X for special working tasks. With the port of CAD/CAM periphery it also was used for technical drawings. There was even the possibility of the remote power on and a integrated fan and power failure detection.

- 16-bit processing deepth
- modular computer design
- individually expandable
- up to 768 kbytes of RAM, 560 ns access time
- 32 kbytes permanent storage in the EPROM
- installation of 5"1/4 harddisk storage disks with 10 mbyte possible
- support for K 5600.20 5"1/4 floppy disks
- CPU description: K 1810 WM 86,5 MHz- extendable by a Co-processor
- up to 1 mbyte memory addressing
- system bus clock frequency: 9,832 MHz

SCP 1700 (Single User Control Program)
- floppy disk oriented singleuser system
- use as a terminal or in the local area network
- prefered use for the development of programs and office automation
- modular design
- control program loader LDSCP for transient commands in the CMD format- control program SCPX (file SCP.SYS)
- including standard software (like word processing)
- delivered with the compilers FORTRAN77, C, Pascal, MODULA-2, COBOL
- with the porgram interpreter BASIC
- graphic extension SCP-GX by GIOS (graphics input/output system) and GDOS (graphic device operating system)

MUTOS 1700
- Time-sharing operating system- UNIX derivated
- / root file system structure
- powerfull Shell with programming similar statements
- for different computer platforms
- writte mostly in C
- utility programs like cp (copies), cmp (compare), mkdir (creates directory), rm (deletes files or directories)
- field of application was the development of software or scientific computing

BOS 1810


- real time operating system
- multitasking with priority control
- modular design
- object oriented design
- field of application is the development of software
- contains already necessary device drivers
- included file access control with right assignment
- error treatment by validity tests
- condition controls with rule definition of exceptions
- dynamic RAM assignment
- interactive adaptation to the user with configuration profiles

Object types:
- Task (active individual program)
- Jobs (passive, separate of single applications to others)
- mailboxes (information exchange between tasks)
- semaphores (integer, affected the status of tasks to active/inactive)
- segments
- Connections