To date, we have looked at many design examples in this epic Zynq/MicroZed blog series without using an operating system. These “bare-metal” systems are fine for the very simple examples we have been discussing to date, but if we are to use a more advanced processing system and maximize the benefits of the Zynq SoC’s dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor, we need an operating system.

There are lots of logos to choose from:

As you can see from the above logos, the Zynq SoC is support by a very large ecosystem of operating systems and kernels that can be implemented on the Zynq SoC. Many of these operating systems are the ones most software engineers will be familiar with. Therefore, going forward with this blog we will look at how we can implement the following operating systems on the Zynq:

uC/OS-iii – a commercial real time system from the Micrium’s uC/OS family, which has been is certified for MISRA-C, DO178B level A, SIL3/4 and IEC61508.

Free RTOS – a free real time system provided by Real Time Engineering Limited at http://www.freertos.org. There’s a SIL3 certified version of Free RTOS known as SafeRTOS from High Integrity Systems.

Linux – the Xilinx PetaLinux distribution. We will be looking at using the standard distribution via GitHub and will be re-compiling the kernel to customize it for our designs.

Android – Gingerbread distribution for the Zynq SoC

Implementing these various operating systems will take a number of weeks and create more in-depth examples that allow us to use some Zynq SoC resources that we have not really touched on yet such as USB and Ethernet. Because the Zynq SoC has two ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor cores, we will also look at the Asymmetric Multi Processing, commonly known as AMP, where we will run different operating systems on each of the processor cores within the Zynq.

Operating systems are designed for many different applications ranging from user interfaces to embedded systems to safety-critical applications. When most people think of operating systems, they tend to think Windows or Linux that run on personal computers. However, operating systems are used many applications from orbiting satellites that send signals to desktop satellite receiver boxes that receive the signal.

The need for operating systems in these embedded designs stems from the fact that complex software applications require task scheduling and management of processor resources and memory, along with many more software-management aspects. While an engineer can write an operating system from scratch for a bare-metal design, such an effort takes considerable time to develop, verify, and support. These days, writing a new operating system when so many are available already is not the most efficient use of an engineer’s time. All you need to do is select the correct operating system for your end application.

In the next blog we will look at the different types of operating systems and how we can select the one best suited for the application being developed.

Please see the previous entries in this MicroZed series by Adam Taylor:

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles MicroZed Part 38 – Answering a question on Interrupts

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 37: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 8

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 36: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 7

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 35: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 6

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 34: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with MicroZed Part 5

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 33: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays with the Zynq SoC

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 32: Driving Adafruit RGB NeoPixel LED arrays

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 31: Systems of Modules, Driving RGB NeoPixel LED arrays

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 30: The MicroZed I/O Carrier Card

Zynq DMA Part Two – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 29

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Eight: Zynq DMA – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 28

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Seven: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 27

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Six: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 26

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Five: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 25

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Four: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 24

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Three: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 23

The Zynq PS/PL, Part Two: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 22

The Zynq PS/PL, Part One: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 21

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Four: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 20

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Three: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 19

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part Two: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 18

Introduction to the Zynq Triple Timer Counter Part One: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 17

The Zynq SoC’s Private Watchdog: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 16

Implementing the Zynq SoC’s Private Timer: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 15

MicroZed Timers, Clocks and Watchdogs: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 14

More About MicroZed Interrupts: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 13

MicroZed Interrupts: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 12

Using the MicroZed Button for Input: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 11

Driving the Zynq SoC's GPIO: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 10

Meet the Zynq MIO: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 9

MicroZed XADC Software: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 8

Getting the XADC Running on the MicroZed: Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles Part 7

A Boot Loader for MicroZed. Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 6

Figuring out the MicroZed Boot Loader – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 5

Running your programs on the MicroZed – Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 4

Zynq and MicroZed say “Hello World”-- Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles, Part 3

Adam Taylor’s MicroZed Chronicles: Setting the SW Scene

Bringing up the Avnet MicroZed with Vivado