eCOS for ARM based embedded system

Abstract

As embedded systems become more prevalent and increasingly sophisticated in the modern electronics market, an operating system is needed to ease the load of the programmer in designing and developing the whole system.

The Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) is an open source real time operating system. One of the key features of the eCos is that it allows programmers to remove all unnecessary functionality and features, hence reduces the resources required and hence optimised for the applications.

This project first involves the study and understanding of eCos, follows by the customization of the eCos for an ARM Cortex processor based embedded board. Familiarization with the tools used by the eCos is first needed in order to understand the porting process. Some simple applications are then developed in order to get familiarized with the various developing tools and the development approaches used for eCos based system. Eventually, an eCos application is developed based around the SD memory card.

SD memory card has become the de-facto industry standard for mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, and other consumer electronic devices. It allows users to store video, photos, and sound in a reliable, easy-to-use format.

This project uses the Cortex M3 STM32 processor board that was developed by an earlier student. However, several functionalities of the microprocessor have not been tested on the board, one of which is the SD interface. For the Cortex microprocessor used, particular attention is hence paid to its SDIO interface together with a detailed study of the specification of the SD protocols, thus allowing the SD Card functionalities to be integrated in the eCos ported for the board.