Linux Journal: VxWorks to Embedded Linux: A Success Story

“The recent introduction of Linux into the embedded sector has
been one of the most exciting changes in the last few years. Based
on the open-source model, it offers new possibilities to embedded
engineers traditionally used to commercial operating systems. At
our university, EUSS, we train students to develop embedded
products. Until last year, our lectures and lab sessions were based
on a commercial real-time operating system. Now we use Linux, and
this fact has opened our minds and given us possibilities for a
future evolution.

“In this article we start with a description of our teaching and
the objectives that triggered this change. We continue with the
subject curricula and the embedded distribution created for the lab
sessions. Finally, conclusions from the first year are
presented…

“In 1995 we were assigned to teach a course titled ‘Industrial
Computing’. The course is taught every year and is divided in two
halves. In the first part, we work with 8-bit systems, and we study
32-bit systems in the second half. For the 32-bit section, a
proprietary operating system VxWorks was initially selected. The
reason for that decision was that Wind River Systems admitted our
school into its university program. This basically implies zero
software cost, and they offered us a complete solution for our
hardware: the evaluation board that Intel had delivered for the
i386EX (EV386EX)…”

Complete Story