Products & Services
csXLUNA
eXtending free/open-source reaL-time execUtive for oN-board space Applications
csXLUNA is a RTEMS/Linux based kernel, as an alternative to commercial solutions, that can be used for both payload and avionics applications. It includes features such as standard programming interfaces (e.g. POSIX), co-existence of real and non real time tasks, and context isolation. csXLUNA was developed to attend to emerging computational requirements for future complex space missions. It provides both a high-level interface for Linux applications and a hard-real time, qualified service for high-priority tasks. This is achieved using a stripped down Linux kernel running in user mode, on top of a Real Time Operating System, in this case RTEMS.
The solution introduced by csXLUNA is based on two sub-systems. The advantage in having two isolated systems is that it is possible to have applications with different criticality levels running on the same system. Thus, non-critical components are quickly developed or simply ported from a previous implementation, resulting in a reduction of time-to-market and budget.
With csXLUNA a heavy validation and verification test campaign on non-critical components could be reduced or even avoided. The Linux sub-system can be activated and deactivated at any time, ensuring protection from erroneous behaviour of the Linux kernel. xLuna is currently built to support the SPARC LEON2 processor and it uses Snapgear Embedded Linux for the Linux subsystem.
Key Features
- Provides a runtime environment for on board real-time and non-real-time applications that can be used across different missions;
- A familiar development environment which requires a minimal learning curve for either creating new applications or migrating/integrating existing components;
- A feature-rich chain of compilers, debuggers, and utilities to facilitate the development process;
- Is reliable, available, maintainable and safe (RAMS)
