Alameda, California-based Wind River has acquired the patents, copyrights, trademarks, and associated product right for RTLinux from FSMLabs, which will relicense RTLinux to target the enterprise market with its dual core mobile platform virtualization technology
The addition of RTLinux to Wind River’s stable brings its Linux capabilities up to par with its traditional VxWorks hard real-time operating system platform, enabling it to target Linux at aerospace and defense, simulation and industrial control environments.
According to the company hard real time is needed when users require 100% fixed systems response times, while soft real-time provided by its existing Wind River Linux offering can be used when the response is only required 90% of the time.
Wind River said it plans to continue offering the FSMLabs RTLinux products in the short term and will also offer Wind River Real Time Core packaged as an optional add-on to Wind River Linux. The latter is scheduled for the second half of 2007.
The acquisition of RTLinux completes a significant turnaround for Wind River, which was once a vehement opponent of Linux as a real-time operating system.
It announced tool support for the operating system in October 2003 before entering into a partnership agreement with Red Hat Inc in February 2004. Since then it has been one of the leading real time Linux advocates, although far from the only one.
A notable rival has been Concurrent Computer Corp, which offers the RedHawk real-time environment based Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux and teamed up with Novell Inc last year to deliver the SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time operating system extensions.
