Alternative Operating Systems
There are many operating systems readily available for embedding on PowerPC that are supported by XPS. The general method for implementing custom operating systems in XPS is to build a Base Support Package (BSP). The Xilinx website provides a detailed list of Operating System Vendors it has partnered with (see the references section of this document), who provide ready-to-go BSPs. A BSP is essentially an EDK-compliant kernel, which lies in a special directory structure. EDK 8 comes pre-packaged with the standalone and xilkernel Operating Systems ready to go, which is highly convenient.
Because WARP has been created with open development and open access in mind, there are very few operating systems available that fit this requirement. Almost all of the Operating Systems vendors that have partnered with Xilinx, require either the purchasing of special software (as is the case with VxWorks and MontaVista Linux) or have an expensive license. The two free non-Xilinx operating systems available are as follows:
- Linux/uClinux – Despite having plentiful amounts of open support (especially for networking applications), the OS requires a Linux host to conveniently download and build the kernel. The operating system has a large memory footprint that WARP may not support (at least for now), and is not a RTOS. There is some documentation available, however, in the reference section of this paper that details how to get Linux to run a Virtex-II Pro with embedded an embedded PowerPC 405 processor.
- The Asterix RTOS – a very small RTOS that is not widely used. It is still under development and has very little support available. The Operating System also has less functionality than xilkernel.
Therefore, it is currently advised to use xilkernel as Operating System of choice for the WARP platform. It has a significant amount of support. It is Real Time. It has a small memory footprint that fits on the platform. The operating system is also open and can be customized/modified to fit the needs of the user. Most importantly, it comes “ready to go” and requires no extra procedures for building and booting, other than updating the bitstream and downloading it to the board in XPS.
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