Hugo Vincent <[email protected]>, 8 March 2011.
This is a real-time operating system for very small devices built around an ARM microcontroller (with typically at least 16 kB of RAM and 64 kB of flash).
A core aim of this project is to provide a ready-to-use distribution of FreeRTOS, in the sense that Linux distributions are much more than just the kernel. As such, we include a clean, consistent build system, a fully functional standard C library with well defined, portable ways of doing hardware abstraction, peripheral access, filesystem access, and so on.
- Support for the ARM Cortex M3 and ARM7TDMI; currently the NXP LPC1768 and LPC2368 ports are working.
- Hard-realtime preemptive multitasking kernel (FreeRTOS v6.1.0).
- Supports protected memory on Cortex M3s that have an MPU (memory protection unit -- included in the LPC17xx series). Tasks that access memory they do no have permission to access are cleanly terminated and debug information is printed to the console.
- Provides exception handlers. Bugs in application code that generate an ARM hardware exception or fault (attempt to access non-existent memory, undefined instruction etc) are trapped and debug output is shown. Shows a stack backtrace and processor state information. In addition, the kernel attempts to recover from such faults by cleanly terminating the responsible task. Similarly for tasks that overflow their application stack.
- Complete C library support (including
malloc, standard file IO etc). - C++ support, including lightweight STL (www.uSTL.sf.net), and exception handling.
- Ethernet networking with the lightweight uIP TCP/IP stack, including a web server.
- Support for power management (processor is aggressively idled when possible, coming soon: dynamic frequency scaling).
- Well integrated GNU toolchain and build system.
- Build system lists total flash and RAM, and provides an estimate for available heap space for dynamically allocated (malloc'd) memory.
- A UNIX-like filesystem hierarchy. Devices can be accessed via their
/dev/nodes. Filesystems (depending on target hardware) can be added to the root filesystem hierarchy, for example/flashor/sd_card.- A read-only filesystem resident in on-chip flash is supported on all targets.
- mbed (mbed.org) target supports semihosted local filesystem, accessible via the mbed USB interface. Should also work with semihosting-compatible debuggers.
- Read/write FAT filesystem on SD/microSD cards (coming soon).
- One UART is used as the console, which is used for operating system messages,
debug output, and standard IO (
printfet. al.). - POSIX APIs for threads, timers, sockets etc. (coming soon). We're aiming for full POSIX 1003.13 Profile 52 support eventually.
- Device drivers for many on-chip and common off-chip peripherals.
- Aims not to drown in excessive configuration options.
- Download and install a compatible arm-none-eabi GNU toolchain, such as the toolchain at http://github.com/hugovincent/arm-eabi-toolchain.
- Edit the configuration options at the top of the Makefile.
- Run
make. - Program the generated binary image to your hardware. The Makefile provides
a
make installtarget to install to suppoted boards.
To be written.
Tested with the Codesourcery 2010q1-188 arm-non-eabi toolchain, built from source with http://github.com/hugovincent/arm-eabi-toolchain (on Mac OS X 10.6). You will probably have problems with an official Codesourcery toolchain as a number of compiler and C library options had to be changed to suit this project. It is strongly recommended to use this customized toolchain.
This has currently only been tested with mbed (www.mbed.org) hardware, some versions of which use the NXP LPC2368, and some the LPC1768.
This is a summary of roughly how early-boot through to OS running works. This example is for Cortex-M3 - other ARM devices have a slightly different process at the start (the C stack and other C runtime stuff is done in assembler code instead).
<Reset>
Hardware set's up a basic C stack with predefined stack pointer. Hardware jumps
to Reset_Handler - these addresses are defined in the .vectors section.
[Reset_Handler]
- this code does what is traditionally called crt0 (C run time).
- can't assume all C features are working
- initialises C features like data (pre-initialized variables) and bss
(zero-initialized variables)
- copy initial vector table from Flash to RAM and atomically perform relocation
of it
- set up any faults and so forth (generally a good idea to attempt
to handle faults than to just ignore them, which will trigger reset)
- optionally initialise a different stack (the "process stack")
- pass control to Boot_Init()
[Boot_Init]
- call System_Init()
[System_Init]
- set up clocks and PLLs if applicable
- enable clocks and if applicable switch core clock source (normally
to something faster)
- enable power/clocks to core peripherals
- if applicable, set up memory management/remapping/acceleration etc
- call Board_EarlyInit()
[Board_EarlyInit]
- set NVIC vectors for low-level interrupts (supervisor call, system
timer tick (part of the Cortex M3 complex, not a SoC level timer), etc
- if used, set up any debug communications channels, and
- set up minimal pin multiplexing etc and peripheral settings so that
the debug UART works (the early/late dichotomy is so that debugging
or error messages during the late init/boot process can be seen, and
that certain boot operations can assume the presence and functionality
of certain OS functionality)
- set any "unsafe" GPIOs to a safe value (things that might be left
floating at boot, but need to be in a defined state for safe operation
- initialise the watch dog timer (optional)
- call Console_EarlyInit()
[Console_EarlyInit]
- set up buffers etc so that printf or other IO machinery works as
intended. This might be done in a safe-but-slow manner
- do any other C/C++ initialisation required (e.g. call C++ constructors)
- call OS_Init()
[OS_Init]
- initialise core OS data structures like the task lists or the
device manager
- these structures allow operating system functionality to be used from
here down (e.g. buffered, device-oriented stream IO; atexit();
POSIX-like signals etc.)
- call Console_LateInit()
[Console_LateInit]
- re-initialise IO machinery to work in an efficient and thread-safe
manner
- call Board_LateInit()
[Board_LateInit]
- initialise other IO/peripherals e.g EEPROM/flash where configuration
data might be stored, real-time clock/timer, other ("safe") GPIO etc
- call main()
[main]
- initialise application-level data structures/objects
- start application threads
- call OS function to start the scheduler (this function does not return)
- if main() ever returns, teardown or disable any "unsafe" things,
then power down while we wait for the Watch dog timer to reset us.
Portions copyright Richard Barry, Real Time Engineers Ltd:
FreeRTOS V6.1.0 - Copyright (C) 2010 Real Time Engineers Ltd.
FreeRTOS is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License (version 3) as published by the
Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
Portions copyright Hugo Vincent:
Copyright (C) 2010 Hugo Vincent <[email protected]>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License (version 3) as published by
the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
The FreeRTOS source code is licensed by the modified GNU General Public License (GPL) text provided below.
This is a list of files for which Real Time Engineers Ltd or Hugo Vincent are not the copyright owner and are NOT COVERED BY THE GPL.
-
Various header files provided by silicon manufacturers and tool vendors that define processor specific memory addresses and utility macros. Permission has been granted by the various copyright holders for these files to be included in the FreeRTOS download. Users must ensure license conditions are adhered to for any use other than compilation of the FreeRTOS demo applications.
-
The uIP TCP/IP stack the copyright of which is held by Adam Dunkels. Users must ensure the open source license conditions stated at the top of each uIP source file is understood and adhered to.
-
Miscellaneous drivers, e.g. for Digi Xbee radios, SD cards etc. License text is in those files.
The GPL license text follows:
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
Version 2, June 1991
Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
Preamble
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When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
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GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION
0. This License applies to any program or other work which contains
a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed
under the terms of this General Public License. The "Program", below,
refers to any such program or work, and a "work based on the Program"
means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion of it,
either verbatim or with modifications and/or translated into another
language. (Hereinafter, translation is included without limitation in
the term "modification".) Each licensee is addressed as "you".
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not
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running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program
is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the
Program (independent of having been made by running the Program).
Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program's
source code as you receive it, in any medium, provided that you
conspicuously and appropriately publish on each copy an appropriate
copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the
notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License
along with the Program.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and
you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion
of it, thus forming a work based on the Program, and copy and
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a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.
b) You must cause any work that you distribute or publish, that in
whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any
part thereof, to be licensed as a whole at no charge to all third
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c) If the modified program normally reads commands interactively
when run, you must cause it, when started running for such
interactive use in the most ordinary way, to print or display an
announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a
notice that there is no warranty (or else, saying that you provide
a warranty) and that users may redistribute the program under
these conditions, and telling the user how to view a copy of this
License. (Exception: if the Program itself is interactive but
does not normally print such an announcement, your work based on
the Program is not required to print an announcement.)
These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole. If
identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
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sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
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Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest
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collective works based on the Program.
In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program
with the Program (or with a work based on the Program) on a volume of
a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under
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3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work based on it,
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a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine-readable
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c) Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer
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The source code for a work means the preferred form of the work for
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except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt
otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or distribute the Program is
void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.
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may not distribute the Program at all. For example, if a patent
license would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the Program by
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the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to
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If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under
any particular circumstance, the balance of the section is intended to
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It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any
patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any
such claims; this section has the sole purpose of protecting the
integrity of the free software distribution system, which is
implemented by public license practices. Many people have made
generous contributions to the wide range of software distributed
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This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to
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8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is restricted in
certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces, the
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may add an explicit geographical distribution limitation excluding
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9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
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END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
<one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.>
Copyright (C) <year> <name of author>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License** as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this
when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) year name of author
Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type `show c' for details.
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate
parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may
be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be
mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your
school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if
necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program
`Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker.
<signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
Ty Coon, President of Vice
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into
proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may
consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the
library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
Public License instead of this License.
Any FreeRTOS source code, whether modified or in it's original release form, or whether in whole or in part, can only be distributed by you under the terms of the GNU General Public License plus this exception. An independent module is a module which is not derived from or based on FreeRTOS.
EXCEPTION TEXT:
Clause 1
Linking FreeRTOS statically or dynamically with other modules is making a
combined work based on FreeRTOS. Thus, the terms and conditions of the GNU
General Public License cover the whole combination.
As a special exception, the copyright holder of FreeRTOS gives you permission
to link FreeRTOS with independent modules that communicate with FreeRTOS
solely through the FreeRTOS API interface, regardless of the license terms
of these independent modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting
combined work under terms of your choice, provided that:
1) every copy of the combined work is accompanied by a written statement that
details to the recipient the version of FreeRTOS used and an offer by
yourself to provide the FreeRTOS source code (including any modifications
you may have made) should the recipient request it.
2) The combined work is not itself an RTOS, scheduler, kernel or related product.
3) The independent modules add significant and primary functionality to
FreeRTOS and do not merely extend the existing functionality already present
in FreeRTOS.
Clause 2
FreeRTOS may not be used for any competitive or comparative purpose, including
the publication of any form of run time or compile time metric, without the
express permission of Real Time Engineers Ltd. (this is the norm within the
industry and is intended to ensure information accuracy).