The EL/IX Real-Time API Initiative

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(Last updated: Jan. 26, 2000)

The goal of EL/IX is, first and foremost, to standardize the APIs available in desktop Linux today in such a way that embedded system developers have a clear and consistent idea of what functionality they can expect for a given embedded target:

Support for developing embedded applications using the Linux desktop environment as both a host and development platform;
A way to scale that functionality according to the requirements of their embedded target;
The freedom to use any kernel (Linux or otherwise) that implements the interfaces of EL/IX that their application requires;
The ability to easily port to any hardware that runs any kernel that supports the subsets of EL/IX they require.

Moreover, the first version of EL/IX will adhere to these additional requirements:

Elements must already be implemented in standard Linux distributions (i.e., don't define what doesn't exist)
Possible to demonstrate real real-time performance when running on a real real-time OS (prove it works beyond Linux);
Based on POSIX where possible (build on accepted standards)
Does not include the kitchen sink (keep it simple)
EL/IX will be extensible
EL/IX will be open-source

By meeting the technical requirements of the embedded developer, using internationally accepted standards, with an open-source implementation, the adoption of EL/IX becomes a "no-brainer". Indeed, the impact on today's Linux developer is virtually nil (though in the future it will require the maintainers of desktop Linux to incorporate the implications of EL/IX into their plans). But the impact of adopting EL/IX in the embedded community will be profound: flexibility and freedom will prevail over fragmentation. Moreover, it will provide a normalizing force that will make it easier for software developers to build content that is useful for both desktop and embedded applications, thereby expanding the market opportunity for software without increasing fragmentation.

What should the standard for Embedded Linux look like?

EL/IX is derived from ISO 9945-1 (aka POSIX.1 or IEEE 1003.1). For now, the set of functionality defined by EL/IX will be small (as small as we can make it), but as this open source initiative gains contributors, it could conceivably extend up to and beyond a complete POSIX implementation and into the realm of arbitrary Linux libraries, including graphics, multimedia, and others. We are starting small because we believe that the right approach to the problem is to make enable the API to support configurable implementations, and thus configurability must be considered at the lowest level of the design.

For further information, read the EL/IX whitepaper.

[keywords: real-time, real time, realtime, distributions]

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