Wind River announces RISC-V support for VxWorks RTOS

Wind River announced this week RISC-V open architecture support for its VxWorks real-time operating system (RTOS), which is a widely deployed commercial RTOS to have support for the RISC-V open hardware instruction set architecture (ISA). 

The company has also joined the RISC-V Foundation, a non-profit consortium chartered to standardize, protect, and promote RISC-V ISA together with its hardware and software ecosystem for use in all computing devices.

VxWorks is a deterministic, high-performance RTOS that sets the standard for a scalable, future-proof, secure, safe, and reliable operating environment for mission-critical devices and systems that must meet the highest standards.

VxWorks is ideal for hard real-time embedded applications because it is a deterministic, priority-based, preemptive RTOS with low latency and minimal jitter. In addition to standard preemption, VxWorks can ensure that safety- and time-critical applications get a predetermined number of CPU cycles through various forms of scheduling as well as time and space partitioning. It also provides flexible features needed for various industries. 

As new features and functionality are added to VxWorks, compatibility is always top of mind because Wind River strives to protect and future proof its customers’ software and tool investments. Compatibility allows developers to take advantage of the latest VxWorks innovation, enabling them to add new features and upgrades with minimal retesting of the entire system, thereby saving both project time and expense.

VxWorks has IPv4 and IPv6 stacks that are also time-sensitive networking (TSN) capable, guaranteeing real-time communications and packet delivery within a bounded time or latency on a switched Ethernet network. VxWorks supports industrial applications, including but not limited to OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA); SocketCAN used in automotive applications; and host, target, and on-the-go (OTG) USB.

VxWorks supports 32- and 64-bit, as well as multi-core processors including Intel, Arm and Power Architecture. Its comprehensive multi-core processor support allows OS configurations for asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) and for symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) with CPU affinity for bound multiprocessing (BMP). 

Adding RISC-V support for VxWorks comes on the heels of the recent wave of innovations made to the RTOS, making it the first to include support for C++17, Boost, Python, and the Rust collection of technologies.

“We are pleased to welcome Wind River into the RISC-V Foundation and our global ecosystem," said Calista Redmond, CEO of the RISC-V Foundation. “VxWorks significantly extends the reach of RISC-V in the embedded developer space. We look forward to continued software developments by Wind River and the RISC-V community.”

“It’s exciting to see RISC-V gain significant industry traction as it brings the dynamism of open architecture development to hardware,” said Michel Genard, vice president of product at Wind River. “Wind River is very pleased to continue innovating VxWorks while contributing to the success of RISC-V with collaborations like the ones we have with SiFive and MicroChip providing support for their Unleashed and PolarFire SoC FPGA boards.”

“Having VxWorks support for our RISC-V-based PolarFire SoC FPGA family brings an extremely compelling offering to embedded systems designers who increasingly need real-time, and Linux capable solutions that are low power, thermally efficient, and secure,” said Shakeel Peera, associate vice president, marketing, FPGA business unit at Microchip. “Our partnership with Wind River is an important one as we work together to advance the collaborative RISC-V ecosystem and community.”

“The adoption of RISC-V by Wind River in VxWorks is a great step in the ongoing enablement of the RISC-V ecosystem,” said Dr. Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO of SiFive. “The ability to run VxWorks on SiFive Core IP and devices will enable new application markets across the world.”