VxWorks 7 Boot up Screen
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Developer | Wind River (a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation) |
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OS family | Real-time operating systems |
Working state | Current |
Initial release | 1987 |
Latest release | 7 / March 2014 |
Marketing target | Embedded systems |
Platforms | x86 (including Intel Quark), x86-64, MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, ARM |
Kernel type | Monolithic |
License | Proprietary |
Official website | www |
VxWorks is a real-time operating system (RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River of Alameda, California, US. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, deterministic performance and, in many cases, safety and security certification, for industries, such as aerospace and defense, medical devices, industrial equipment, robotics, energy, transportation, network infrastructure, automotive, and consumer electronics.
VxWorks supports Intel (x86, including the new Intel Quark SoC, and x86-64), MIPS, PowerPC, SH-4, and ARM architectures. The RTOS can be used in multicore asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP), symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), and mixed modes and multi-OS (via Type 1 hypervisor) designs on 32- and 64-bit processors.
VxWorks comes with the kernel, middleware, board support packages, Wind River Workbench development suite and complementary third-party software and hardware technologies. In its latest release, VxWorks 7, the RTOS has been re-engineered for modularity and upgradeability so the OS kernel is separate from middleware, applications and other packages. Scalability, security, safety, connectivity, and graphics have been improved to address Internet of Things (IoT) needs.
VxWorks started in the late 1980s as a set of enhancements to a simple RTOS called VRTX sold by Ready Systems (becoming a Mentor Graphics product in 1995). Wind River acquired rights to distribute VRTX and significantly enhanced it by adding, among other things, a file system and an integrated development environment. In 1987, anticipating the termination of its reseller contract by Ready Systems, Wind River developed its own kernel to replace VRTX within VxWorks.