The Embedded Cygnus Operating System (eCosTM) software is a set of tools and a run-time environment for developing embedded real-time applications. eCos is a configurable, open source system that allows developers to build a run-time system that closely matches the needs of their application.
eCos is aimed at embedded software developers with tight memory requirements who want a portable framework for developing their applications.
Below is a discussion of the features of eCos version 1.1. If you want to start programming eCos immediately please see Part III and Part IV. A more complete list of what is distributed in this release of eCos can be found in Chapter 2.
eCos includes a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) that hides the specific features of each CPU and platform so that the kernel and other run-time components can be implemented in a portable fashion.
The eCos HAL has now been ported to three architectures: Matsushita MN10300, Toshiba TX39, and PowerPC. Notes on porting the HAL to new platforms are provided in the eCos Reference Manual, appendix The eCos Hardware Abstraction Layer, section Kernel porting notes.