Frequently Asked Questions

What is OS Abstractor?

OS Abstractor APIs allows you to develop code independent of the underlying OS thereby protecting your software investment from being tied to one specific OS vendor. Further, OS Abstractor plug-ins allows your code to run under multiple operating systems including Linux, Nucleus, ThreadX, MQX, VxWorks, POSIX-based, iTRON, proprietary, and others.

Developers who have not decided on the OS to use yet can take advantage of our low-cost generic abstraction solution to start developing code before they purchase the OS. Once developers have chosen the OS they can purchase the RTOS plug-ins to run their code on the target RTOS.

To download an evaluation of our OS Abstractor solution please click here

What are the problems with using a proprietary RTOS abstraction layer?

It is a requirement in many cases to keep product code portable across RTOSs. However developing a proprietary interface between your product code and the underlying RTOS does not provide you with the required portability for your application and the driver code. The proprietary interface also,

• Costs time, money and requires skillful resources
• Take the focus away from developing core products
• Restricts applications and firmware development by allowing them to use only limited OS features
• Harder to migrate solutions available on other OS platforms to your product
• Solutions will increase in complexity/code size as you add OS support and will be harder to maintain
• Requires you to obtain costly licenses from various RTOS vendors for you and your downstream customers to validate your solution

What is OS Changer?

OS Changer is an abstraction solution that allows your product to adapt to multiple RTOSs while allowing you to recycle a wide variety of code base (like VxWorks, pSOS, POSIX, etc.) that you have or that is available to you.

Why should you migrate?

Generally, if you are NOT working with an operating system that is popular, robust, backed by a strong company, economical and has good market share, you should consider switching to another RTOS. This will ensure that the RTOS you use will have excellent support for popular tools and hardware. Other specific reasons may be:

• Cost is extremely high (huge royalty and/or licensing fees)
• Unrealistic RTOS licensing models. Forget making licensing changes once you pay the initial fees.
• RTOS was popular, but now it's becoming unpopular and/or losing market share. New development will cease and eventually, the vendor may not even support an obsolete RTOS product
• Popular, but really lacks support for a variety of CPUs, tools and 3rd party solutions. In this case, you have to spend your in-house resources to do the required porting and development. This work normally requires skilled and specialized resources. Outside consultants could do the work, but it will be expensive. It will also take to time teach them about your product. Also, let's hope that your competition does not hire them after they walk out the door with that product knowledge.
• Your RTOS requires more hardware resources such as more memory and a high-end CPU. This directly impacts your ability to sell your product competitively and hence affects the profit margin
• An RTOS vendor with bad support services

Can I license only the OS Changer components that I need?

Absolutely. Why pay more for what you don't need or use.

Can I use the OS Changer components under a prototyping environment instead of using a real hardware?

Yes. Many of the OS Changer components readily allow you to port/develop most of your code base under a windows OS prototyping platform under visual C++ environment. This allows you to start your porting work much earlier instead of waiting for the target specific resources.

Why do I need to use a tool like OS Changer to do the porting?

The reality is that porting applications/drivers to another RTOS is flaunted with danger and risk, especially when you are unfamiliar with the new RTOS. On average, our customers have saved over 75% of their development time and completed their work much faster utilizing OS Changer. Our solutions let you keep using the familiar API that you are used to while allowing you to get your code running across multiple RTOSs now and in the future. In fact, OS Changer itself is portable to other commercial or proprietary RTOSs. Doing a direct port will put you into this same situation when you decide to change your RTOS again. Our products are straightforward, simple, small and robust and provide OS extensions that are necessary to recycle existing code base. Utilizing OS Changer provides you with an opportunity to quickly leverage your various existing code base while allowing you to easily adapt to various RTOSs. The main benefits are:

• Cost savings
• Save on royalty and high licensing fees by switching to a new OS
• OS Changer greatly reduces development effort
• Reduce maintenance costs by utilizing a single source base
  
• Time Savings
• Reduce time-to-market
• Developers that have a lot of legacy code can use our OS Changer solution to save time by porting their code to a new OS in a matter of weeks instead of months or years.
  
• Familiarity
• Develop new designs using a familiar programming interface and learn a new OS at your phase
• Get a demo up and running rapidly under a simulated environment and do a feasibility study
  

How does MapuSoft's products help OEM vendors?

Our products help in situations where the OEM's downstream customers do not want to change operating systems due to additional license and development costs. It also helps in situations where your customer has decided to switch RTOSs but has existing code that needs to be ported to the new RTOS platform. Why spend a lot of time and money doing custom RTOS ports and/or Peripherals support to win a deal? More

How does MapuSoft's products help silicon vendors?

Using our platform, silicon vendors can develop proof-of-concept demo software quickly and easily across various RTOS/Peripherals. Why spend a lot of time and money developing the software that you do not sell but just use it for demo purposes? More

How does OS Changer help RTOS vendors?

You may have already convinced your customer to go with your RTOS. Now, make the transition easier and cheaper for them with OS Changer compatibility APIs… More

---

Products	Developers	Partners	News	Company	Evals	Disclaimer
© Copyright 2006 MapuSoft Technologies LLC. - All Rights Reserved