EP405 and EP405PC Boot FSMLabs RTLinux in 750 Milliseconds

Blazing Boot Time on PowerPC405GP Board, Methods Applicable to Other Architectures

September 28, 2003, Socorro, NM - FSMLabs, the Socorro New Mexico based developer of hard real-time software announced today that it is delivering a fast boot Embedded Linux for a PowerPC405GP embedded processor board. The system takes 200milliseconds from power-up to start of user application code (500milliseconds with a RAMDisk and Flash load). “The techniques we used to reduce boot time are processor independent and can produce further improvements – this is just the beginning” said Cort Dougan, FSMLabs Director of Engineering. Visitors to Japan's Embedded Systems Expo and Expo in July saw a demonstration of the technology from Innotech and FSMLabs Japan and the system is now directly available from FSMLabs. Normally Linux takes a leisurely 5 seconds or more to complete the boot process, and this is unacceptable to many embedded device makers who need end-users to see little perceptual delay from the moment a device is switched on, to the moment it operates. “FSMLabs conducted a detailed analysis of where Embedded Linux is actually being delayed ”, noted Dougan, “and the results of that study have given us a number of targets for future work on reducing boot time well below the current levels. We believe that sub-100millisecond is certainly possible.”

The current implementation of fast boot Embedded Linux is available on FSMLabs RTLinux Development Kit for the Embedded Planet single board computers and many Intel x86 boards. FSMLabs plans on moving this technology to other architectures in response to customer demand. Xscale support is nearly complete.

About RTLinux Pro

RTLinux Pro is FSMLabs RTCore POSIX PS51 robust "hard" real-time kernel plus a full embedded Linux development system. RTCore employs a patented dual kernel technique to run Linux or BSD Unix as applications. Hard real-time software runs at hardware speeds while the full power of an open-source UNIX is available to non-real-time components. RTLinux Pro is used for everything from satellite controllers, telescopes, and jet engine test stands to routers and computer graphics. RTLinux Pro runs on a wide range of platforms from high end clusters of multiprocessor P4s/Athlons to low power devices like the MPC860, Elan 520, and ARM7. FSMLabs also offers a collection of durable real-time software blocks: LNet real-time networking and 1394 Firewire; PSDD protected memory real-time threads; and ControlsKit XML/RPC interface to control variables.

About FSMLabs, Inc.

FSMLabs is a privately held, revenue financed, core system software developer with headquarters in New Mexico and sales and engineering staff in Alaska, Florida, India, Russia, Seoul Korea, and Tokyo Japan. FSMLabs was founded by the creators of RTLinux with the aim of reducing complexity and increasing reliability and performance control system software via simplicity, robustness and precise design. For more information, email business@fsmlabs.com or visit www.fsmlabs.com