VxWORKSThe Safe and Secure RTOS for the Internet of Things

Product Note

VxWorks RTOS Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

VxWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

VxWorks Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Optional Add-on Profiles . . . . . . . . . . 2

VxWorks RTOS Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Componentization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

VxWorks Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Other VxWorks Subsystems . . . . . . . . 6

Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

VxWorks Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Graphics and Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Advanced Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Optional Add-on Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Safety Profile for VxWorks . . . . . . . . . 11

Security Profile for VxWorks . . . . . . . 13

Virtualization Profile for VxWorks . . . 14

Wind River Workbench

Development Suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Project System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Build System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Command-Line Build System . . . . . . 16

Debugger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

VxWorks Simulator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

VxWorks Source Build

Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

VxWorks Kernel Configurator . . . . . . 17

Debug Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Kernel Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Core Dump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Optional Workbench Tool Add-ons

for VxWorks Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Workbench System Analysis

Profile for VxWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Workbench Rapid Development

Profile for VxWorks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

App Designer Toolkit for VxWorks . . 20

Architectures, Hosts, and BSPs . . . . . . . 20

Supported Architectures . . . . . . . . . . 20

Supported BSPs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Supported Hosts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Wind River Partner Ecosystem . . . . . . . 20

Wind River Marketplace . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Wind River Professional Services . . . . . 21

Wind River Customer Support . . . . . . . 22

Wind River Education Services . . . . . . 22

Powering more than 2 billion intelligent devices, VxWorks® is the world’s most widely de-

ployed real-time operating system (RTOS) . It delivers unrivaled deterministic performance

and sets the standard for a scalable, future-proof, safe, and secure operating environment

for connected devices in the Internet of Things (IoT) . VxWorks is backed by more than 30

years of embedded technology experience, a world-class support organization, a compre-

hensive partner ecosystem, and a specialized professional services team .

TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHEN IT MATTERS, IT RUNS ON WIND RIVER

2 | Product Note

VxWORKS RTOS OVERVIEW

VxWorks

The latest release of VxWorks, VxWorks 7, is the next-generation RTOS from Wind River® .

This version has been engineered to meet the challenges of a diverse customer install base

while maintaining the core competencies demanded in a feature-rich RTOS .

Features include:

• Broad support: VxWorks supports the broadest spectrum of 32-bit and 64-bit CPUs,

single-core and multi-core, from ARM®, Power Architecture®, and Intel® .

• Expandable and upgradeable: To support your future development of connected

devices, VxWorks was designed with an expandable and upgradable architecture . A

modular, future-proof platform, VxWorks can adapt and evolve to match changing mar-

ket requirements, your needs, and technology advancements . The VxWorks core kernel

is separate from protocols, applications, and other packages, enabling upgrades and

new feature additions to be accomplished faster and with minimal retesting of the entire

system .

• Scalable: VxWorks’ scalable footprint allows it to be the RTOS foundation for everything

from tiny implantable medical devices to large intelligent systems forming the smart grid .

It is scalable to meet your project’s unique memory footprint, functionality, and process-

ing power requirements .

• Deterministic: VxWorks is a high-performance RTOS tuned for both determinism and

responsiveness .

• Reliable: VxWorks is designed with memory management unit (MMU)–based memory

protection, leading to increased reliability . VxWorks incorporates a process-based model

that provides user-mode application execution in addition to its traditional kernel-mode

execution .

• Optimized: VxWorks takes advantage of multi-core benefits by supporting asymmet-

ric multiprocessing (AMP) and symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) OS configurations and

hardware-optimized multi-core acceleration .

VxWorks Plus

VxWorks is also available in an enhanced package called VxWorks Plus, with all the features

and functionality of the VxWorks RTOS in addition to a broad suite of advanced middleware

features and protocols that help address a host of specialized needs unique to specific

industries, including aerospace and defense, industrial, medical, consumer, and networking .

Recent additions to VxWorks Plus include multi-OS communication using the OpenAMP

standard and deterministic Ethernet using Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) .

Optional Add-on Profiles

Safety Profile for VxWorks

Safety Profile is targeted for markets that require high levels of safety and reliability for

applications that simply cannot fail . Examples of these markets are avionics, medical,

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3 | Product Note

industrial, and automotive . Safety Profile contains advanced time-partitioning capabilities

to enable reliable consolidation of multiple applications with different levels of criticality on

one platform, single- or multi-core . Multiple levels of criticality allow a customer to focus on

safety and reliability for only specific parts of the system where it is necessary, which helps

reduce cost and speed time-to-market .

Optional IEC 61508-3 SIL3 and DO-178C DAL A certification evidence packages are also

available .

Security Profile for VxWorks

Security Profile delivers a comprehensive set of features to safeguard devices, connections,

data, and intellectual property in the always-connected world of IoT . Security Profile

technologies—such as secure boot, secure run-time loader, advanced user management,

network security, and encrypted containers—protect devices and data at every stage, from

boot-up to operation to data transmission to data at rest . Security Profile contains hardware-

and software-based technologies to improve security .

Virtualization Profile for VxWorks

Virtualization Profile is a real-time, embedded Type 1 hypervisor that enables the

combination of multiple workloads on a single multi-core processor, helping drive down

hardware costs and allowing new capabilities to be added more quickly . Optimized for your

productivity and fully integrated into VxWorks, the hypervisor utilizes standard VxWorks

workflows to configure, build, develop, and debug .

VxWORKS

Figure 1. VxWorks RTOS solutions

4 | Product Note

VxWORKS RTOS FEATURES

Componentization

The VxWorks installation is componentized to make it easy to provide updates and

enhancements to VxWorks run-time components and host tools . VxWorks componentization

allows controlled granular updates to individual components such as core, middleware,

and networking technologies, as well as to build tools and the Wind River Workbench

development suite .

VxWorks Kernel

VxWorks Multi-core Technologies

SMP is the easiest way to use a homogeneous multi-core device—a device with multiple

cores, all of the same type . The VxWorks SMP configuration allows a single instance of the

operating system to leverage multi-core processors to achieve true concurrent execution of

applications, allowing applications to gain in performance through parallelism . It maintains

the same key RTOS characteristics of performance, small footprint, high reliability, and

determinism as the uniprocessor (UP) configuration of VxWorks .

The VxWorks SMP-enabled platforms allow the following:

• Increase productivity by using the same development environment and processes avail-

able for UP development with the SMP extension for existing development tools .

• Enable a flexible design approach using Wind River expertise and broad technology

support for multi-core .

• Deliver higher-performance multi-core-powered products with reduced risk and devel-

opment investment .

Scheduling

Multitasking requires a task scheduler to allocate the ready tasks to the CPU . VxWorks

provides several scheduler options as follows:

• The traditional VxWorks scheduler, which provides priority-based, preemptive schedul-

ing as well as a round-robin extension

• The VxWorks POSIX® threads scheduler, which is designed for running Pthreads in

processes

• The real-time process (RTP) time partition scheduler, which allows for scheduling RTPs for

specified time frames

• A custom scheduler framework

In a multi-core environment, VxWorks schedules the highest-priority tasks based on the

number of CPUs in the system .

CPU Affinity

While the default scheduler behavior (in which any task can run on any CPU) often provides

the best overall load balancing, there are cases where assigning a specific set of tasks to

a specific CPU can be useful . For example, if a CPU is dedicated to signal processing, the

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5 | Product Note

cache remains filled with the code and data required for that activity . This saves the cost of

moving to another CPU . Another example is where some of an application’s tasks frequently

contend for the same spinlock, and execution time is wasted waiting for a spinlock to

become available . Overall performance could be improved by setting task CPU affinity so

all tasks involved in spinlock contention run on the same CPU . This would free up more time

on other CPUs as well .

CPU Reservation

CPU reservation is a stronger form of affinity, in which a task and CPU are dedicated to each

other . For example, if task A has reserved CPU 2, it will not only always run on CPU 2 but

CPU 2 will not schedule any other tasks in the system even if they are ready . While running,

task A will not be preempted by any other tasks, regardless of priority . Any interrupts routed

to CPU 2 will still be serviced . CPU reservation is typically used to fine-tune and increase

the performance of critical, compute-intensive tasks in the system and to have a significant

impact on system performance and throughput .

SMP and Mutual Exclusion

In most cases, the same mechanisms—semaphores, message queues—can be used in

both UP and SMP systems for mutual exclusion and coordination of tasks . The most basic

differences for SMP programming have to do with the mechanisms available for mutual

exclusion between tasks and interrupts executing and being received on different CPUs . In

place of UP task and interrupt locking routines, the following facilities are available for SMP

environments:

• Spinlocks for tasks and interrupt service routines (ISRs)

• CPU-specific mutual exclusion for tasks and ISRs

• Atomic memory operations

• Memory barriers

As with the UP mechanisms used for protecting critical regions and global variables,

spinlocks and CPU-specific mutual exclusion facilities should only be used when they are

guaranteed to be in effect for very short periods of time . The appropriate use of these

facilities is critical to making an application SMP-ready .

Interrupt CPU Affinity

Interrupt CPU affinity can be useful for load balancing if there is heavy interrupt traffic on

a given CPU . It can also be useful as an aid in migrating code from VxWorks UP . VxWorks

makes use of programmable interrupt controller devices to allow assignment interrupts to

a specific CPU . By default, interrupts are routed to the bootstrap CPU . Runtime assignment

of interrupts to a specific CPU occurs at boot time when the system reads interrupt

configuration information from the board support package (BSP) .

Semaphores

VxWorks semaphores are highly optimized, providing a fast intertask communication

mechanism . Semaphores are the primary means for addressing the requirements of both

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6 | Product Note

mutual exclusion and task synchronization . For mutual exclusion, semaphores interlock

access to shared resources . They provide mutual exclusion in an SMP environment where

interrupt locking and task preemption locking would fail . For synchronization, semaphores

coordinate a task’s execution with external events .

Message Queues

While semaphores provide a high-speed mechanism for the synchronization and

interlocking of tasks, often a higher-level mechanism is necessary to allow cooperating

tasks to communicate with each other . In VxWorks, the primary intertask communication

mechanism within a single CPU is a message queue . Message queues can be created as

public objects, which allows for their use in interprocess communication .

Message queues allow a variable number of messages, each of variable length, to be

queued . Tasks and ISRs can send messages to a message queue, and tasks can receive

messages from a message queue . Multiple tasks can send to and receive from the same

message queue .

Other Configurations

A homogeneous multi-core device can also be configured with a hypervisor to ensure

partitioning . For more information, see the Virtualization Profile section of this document or

the VxWorks 653 3 .0 Multi-core Edition product overview .

Other VxWorks Subsystems

Real-Time Process

VxWorks enables you to increase device reliability through MMU-based memory protection .

It supports process-based, user-mode application execution in addition to its traditional

kernel-mode execution . Features of memory protection include:

• Increasing device reliability by isolating the kernel from user-mode applications, and

applications from each other

• The standard, process-based programming model, simplifying application development

• A global preemptive, priority-based task scheduler ensuring real-time deterministic

behavior

• The ability to create private or public objects in the kernel and in RTPs

• An extensible system call interface enabling you to employ custom-developed kernel

services from user-mode execution

• Support for shared libraries for RTPs, reducing runtime footprint

VxBus Framework

VxWorks includes the second generation of VxBus, a framework for device management

and driver design . VxBus coordinates device-related operations among device drivers, the

BSP, and the VxWorks kernel . It provides a formal interface between device drivers and

hardware . It also provides a uniform set of APIs that can be used by higher-level features

such as file systems, network stacks, and power management frameworks .

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7 | Product Note

VxBus is intended to define the basic layout of a device driver in a consistent way, and

includes library routines for instantiating and managing device objects that represent

actual devices present in the system . This provides a means for dynamic device and driver

handling, allowing both device objects and drivers to be added to or removed from the

system while in motion .

The second generation of VxBus includes:

• New driver model and device/driver management framework, which is the core of the

VxBus system and supplies the basic API for driver developers

• New communication mechanism among various drivers and with the OS

• Simpler method for driver declaration and registration

Memory Management

VxWorks uses a standard overlapping memory model on all architectures . All boards with

a native VxWorks 7 BSP will use this model . For backward compatibility, Wind River allows

VxWorks 6 .9 BSPs to use the previous model until a VxWorks 7 BSP is made available .

The overlapped virtual memory feature closely resembles the traditional user virtual address

space used for processes on other operating systems . All RTPs in the system get exclusive

use of a common range of virtual addresses . Each RTP has a private view of its common

virtual memory area . Shared data regions and shared libraries are mapped to other locations .

When using the overlapped virtual memory feature, RTP executables can be fully linked and

therefore do not require symbol relocations at load time that are otherwise necessary in

non-overlapped mode . Fully linked RTP executables will then load significantly faster than

RTPs running in non-overlapped mode .

Other VxWorks memory management features include the following:

• Improved memory allocation using a “best-fit” algorithm to reduce memory fragmentation

• User-mode heap and memory partition support

• Developer-replaceable user-mode heap allocator

• Heap instrumentation to assist in diagnosing common memory problems

• Tight integration with error management

• Compiler-assisted code instrumentation

Error Management

VxWorks supports an error management framework (see Figure 2) to help isolate, diagnose,

and correct error conditions encountered during development and testing . This framework

makes it possible to manage failures and minimizes the need to reproduce them in order

to diagnose the device . The error management framework also includes memory error

detection and error reporting technology . In addition, it provides a foundation for debugging

device software out-of-the-box and is extensible, enabling the design of reliable devices .

Error management capabilities are available in the kernel and RTPs and include the

following:

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8 | Product Note

• ISR and task stack overrun and underrun detection

• Code corruption detection

• Null pointer usage detection

• Heap block overrun and underrun detection

• Heap usage tracking and leakage detection

• RTP error detection

• API support for kernel application errors

• API support for user-defined application errors

• Customizable error-handling policies

• Error records with common headers, OS and hardware information, and user-defined

optional strings

• User-defined memory storage of error records

Hardware

VxWorks supports most modern 32- and 64-bit single- and multi-core processors from ARM,

Intel, and Power Architecture, and other architectures on request . New board support is

added as the market evolves . A current list of BSPs for VxWorks is available on www .bsp .

windriver .com .

The componentized nature of VxWorks makes it easy for you, partners, or third parties to

add additional boards and architectures, keep them private, or publish them on www .bsp .

windriver .com .

Security

VxWorks provides many features to create secure devices, including:

Error Management

Error Handling Policies

Error Injection Routines

EDR System Call

Error Detection

Error Log

Kernel

User Application: Kernel

Memory Management

RTOS

User Application: RTP

Persistent Memory Configuration

BSP

Persistent Memory

Target Hardware

ED

R A

PI

Figure 2. Error management

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9 | Product Note

• Basic user management—a unified system to handle login names and passwords with no

hardcoded default credential

• OpenSSL—the well-known, full-featured toolkit for the Transport Layer Security (TLS) and

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocols, including libraries to support many cryptographic

standards (e .g . AES, SHA, RSA, ECC, X .509 certificates, etc .)

• Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2 build mode

• SSL/SSH client/server technology

• Firewall with support for, among others:

– Mandatory access control (MAC) filtering

– Input and output filters

– pktflags keyword that is used to filter IPsec, Network Address Translation (NAT), and

tunneled packets

– Rule grouping

• NAT

• IPsec authentication, data integrity, encryption, and replay protection of any network traf-

fic on the IP layer; Wind River IPsec is implemented as a tightly integrated software mod-

ule for Wind River Network Stack, for both IPv4 and IPv6 operations, is interoperable with

other IPsec implementations, and conforms to the IPsec RFCs as specified by the IETF

• Internet Key Exchange (IKE) protocols v1 and v2

VxWORKS PLUS

VxWorks Plus enhances VxWorks with a broad suite of advanced middleware features

and protocols that help address a host of specialized needs unique to specific industries,

including aerospace and defense, industrial, medical, consumer, and networking .

Graphics and Audio*

VxWorks Plus has built-in capabilities for 2D and 3D graphics and also works with popular

graphics design tools for advanced graphical user interfaces (GUIs) . Get started on basic

designs with the tools included in VxWorks Plus, then scale up to third-party designs and

render solutions if more advanced GUIs are required . Third-party technologies from partners

including CoreAVI, Disti, and Qt are available for more advanced GUIs .

• Software and hardware-based support for OpenVG and OpenGL ES

• Run-time render for GUIs built around 2D graphics

• Touch-screen integration

• Audio support

*Not all capabilities are available on all boards.

Advanced Networking

IPNET Stack

The IPNET stack (see Figure 3) is a full-featured dual IPv4/IPv6 stack specifically designed

for embedded real-time systems . The IPNET stack supports large IPv4/IPv6 networks,

security, wireless, and mobility capabilities for compatibility with a wide range of networking

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10 | Product Note

environments . It includes rich networking features with a high-performance, scalable

implementation and a small footprint . It conforms to relevant industry standards and

provides a clean code structure for easy integration and faster implementation . To ensure

high quality, conformance to standards, and interoperability with other network devices, the

IPNET stack has undergone extensive third-party testing and external test lab validation .

The IPNET stack was one of the first TCP/IP stacks in the industry to receive the IPv6 Ready

Logo (phase two) .

The IPNET stack provides full multi-threading support to take advantage of multi-core CPUs . Many options can be configured such as priority, CPU affinity, and network interface affinity .

The IPNET stack provides a hood for socket wake-up that is similar to the capability

provided by a signals I/O (SIGIO) implementation . The stack also supports FIPS 140-2 for

the following protocols:

• DHCP v6 (both client and server)

• Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

• RIP

• SCTP

The IPNET stack adds the following functionality:

• 64-bit support

• 32-bit support

• Traceroute command similar to UNIX traceroute

• Robust Header Compression (ROHC) enhancement

RIP WPS, MACsecv3

Mobile IP

ROHCQoS

DiffServ

TCP/IP Stack

Dual IPv4/v6 Unicast Multicast

SNTP

NAT NAT-PT NAT-T IPsec Firewall

IKE RADIUS Diameter

SNMPv1,2c SSHTelnetSSLWeb Server

MPLS Data Plane DNS, DHCP, TFTP, FTP

UDP, TCP, RAW

Tunneling: IP-IP, GRE, IPv6

ICMP, ICMPv6, NDP

Fast Packet Processing

IGMP, MLD Router & Host

Sockets: BSD, AF_ROUTE, PF_KEYv2, IPv6 Extensions

IPCOM

Virtual Router

ML-PPP, PPPoE VLAN Tagging Cryptography WLAN Ethernet/ARP

SCTP

Figure 3. IPNET stack and related components

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11 | Product Note

• IPLITE network stack

• Stacked virtual LAN (VLAN)

• VLAN priority

• Dynamic domain name server client

• Network Time Protocol (NTP)

• DHCP relay agent information option (option 82)

• Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP) security

Figure 3 depicts how the stack is integrated with all the relevant networking technologies .

VxWorks Real-Time Network Stack

Wind River provides a second, alternative stack as part of VxWorks Plus and Safety Profile:

VxWorks Real-Time Network Stack . Real-Time Network Stack is focused on deterministic

and short code paths and is intended for use with communication in small networks . It is a

host-end-only stack and does not have routing capabilities .

Real-Time Network Stack can run at kernel level and thus serve all the tasks and RTPs in the

system, or it can run encapsulated with the device driver fully inside an RTP . This capability

is useful for safety systems where multiple levels of criticality are required .

Real-Time Network Stack supports the following protocols and socket types:

• IPv4

• TCP

• User Datagram Protocol (UDP)

• Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) for IPv4-to-Ethernet

• Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) (none of the deprecated message types are

implemented)

• AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM to use TCP over IPv4

• AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM to use UDP over IPv4

• AF_INET, SOCK_RAW, <IPPROTO> to use IPv4 with application processing

• AF_NETLINK, SOCK_RAW, NETLINK_ROUTE to use netlink

OPTIONAL ADD-ON PROFILES

Safety Profile for VxWorks

Safety Profile provides the capability to run applications in separate partitions and to

control resource availability in each partition . This is enabled with space, time, and

resource partitioning and by limiting access to components to minimize the exposure of

the application . Known as VxWorks Portable Deterministic (VxPoD) containers, this set of

features allows applications to be migrated easily from one generation of a device and

seamlessly integrated into a derivative device . The features include the safety scheduler for

RTPs and access control for system resources, allowing for multiple levels of criticality to be

supported in a safety certification context .

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12 | Product Note

Safety Scheduler

The scheduler allows you to specify exactly how to schedule a series of RTPs . Dividing

the time available into different partitions, the scheduler will only schedule a fixed set of

defined RTPs to run during a time partition . As shown in Figure 4, this includes kernel tasks,

enabling the creation of time slices grouped by priority .

Foreground RTPs are processes that run during a time partition . Background RTPs can

optionally be added to a time partition and run only when foreground RTPs are idle . With

the use of foreground and background RTPs, the system designer has full control over the

ideal execution time for critical processes without wasting idle time in the partition . See

Figure 5 .

Tim

e

Tim

e Pa

rtiti

on

1T1

Tic

ksTi

me

Part

itio

n 2

T2 T

icks

Tim

e Pa

rtiti

on

3 T3

Tic

ks

Advanced Time Partitioning Scheduler

Low Criticality Function (e.g., HMI)

RTP #3 RTP #4 Kernel Tasks

Medium Criticality Function (e.g., Temperature Control)

RTP #1 RTP #2

High Criticality Function (e.g., Motor Control)

RTP #1 RTP #2 Kernel Tasks

CPU 0 CPU 1 CPU n

Figure 4. Safety partitioning scheduler

VxWORKS

Fore

gro

und

RTP

sB

ackg

roun

d R

TPs

RTP 1

RTP 2

RTP 3

RTP b

RTP 1

RTP a

RTP c

RTP a

RTP 4

Time

Time Partition 1t1 Ticks

Time Partition 2t2 Ticks

IdleIdle

Figure 5. Foreground vs. background RTPs

13 | Product Note

VxPoD containers access control provides full control over specific system resources

available to each RTP . The access control mechanism can restrict access to system resources

for specific RTPs . Resource access control includes:

• Kernel resource allocation: Resource allocations—such as memory allocation, memory

partition creations, or message queue creation—consume memory space in the kernel

heap . A limit to the kernel resource allocation can be defined for each RTP, preventing

low-criticality RTPs from starving the kernel heap for high-criticality RTPs .

• System call access control: RTPs can be restricted from making specific system calls that

enter into kernel space; for example, the system designer may want to limit socket calls

to a specific group of RTPs .

• Kernel object access control: Access to kernel objects like semaphores or message

queues can be restricted to specific RTPs . This restriction prevents the wrong RTP from

taking control of a semaphore, or writing to the wrong message queue .

Establishing a safe RTP environment is critical for devices that cannot fail . Any system

overrun could cause a fault that brings down the system and creates a disaster . The VxPoD

architecture addresses this by preventing lower-criticality RTPs from breaking the system,

allowing higher-criticality features to continue to function .

Certifiable Build for VxWorks

The certifiable build is a key component in the safety certification of the application .

The certifiable build contains libraries for a reduced set of VxWorks kernel and RTP APIs

used by projects planned for industry-standard certifications such as IEC 61508 . A certifiable

build tool lists the VxWorks APIs called in an application that falls outside the certifiable

build subset .

You can continue development using the full non-certifiable VxWorks API set, but the

optional certification evidence package will not cover modules and applications built

outside of the certifiable build .

Security Profile for VxWorks

Security Profile includes the basic security features present in VxWorks Plus and adds

advanced capabilities to render devices more secure, such as:

• Advanced user management extension to the basic user management allows users to

define specific roles (e .g . administrators vs . technicians) and enforce policies control-

ling password complexity (e .g . minimum length) and login attempts (e .g . time between

invalid logins) .

• Encrypted containers provide a system to protect data at rest using the Advanced

Encryption Standard (AES) . The encrypted volumes are compatible with tools such as

VeraCrypt or TrueCrypt .

• Wibu-Systems’ technology has been integrated into VxWorks to enable the loading of

digitally signed code Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) . When enabled, only the signed

object will load and run . This loader is a software-only version that can be replaced

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14 | Product Note

without changes to the code via a hardware-based module provided by Wibu-Systems

(USB stick, µSD Card, ASIC, etc .) . On top of signing, binaries can also be encrypted with

AES to help protect IP .

• Security Profile includes a driver for Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1 .2 devices . TPMs are

small cryptoprocessors that can be used to perform various tasks such as generating RSA

keys or providing a secure storage for true secure boot with full hardware root of trust .

• The Trusted Computing Group software stack known as TrouSerS has been integrated

to simplify the use of TPMs . TrouSerS provides many high-level functions; for example,

leveraging a TPM to seal and unseal files, generate cryptographically secure random

numbers, and perform remote attestation . Formal documentation is available at https://

github .com/srajiv/trousers .

• A security event handler enables actions to be taken when VxWorks encounters condi-

tions while the application is running that are considered potential security risks (e .g .

invalid login) .

• Full disk encryption using XEX-AES—to ensure that even the file system metadata is

invisible—performs at the partition level .

• ARM TrustZone support enables secure applications to run alongside VxWorks . Wind River

enables the use of an industry standard Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment

(OP-TEE) as the secure world executive and follows the TEE API specifications for com-

munication with the secure world .

• Security Profile includes support for secure boot on various Intel, ARM, and POWER

Architecture boards .

Virtualization Profile for VxWorks

Virtualization Profile is a Type 1 hypervisor that provides real-time virtualization for

processor architectures with hardware assist for virtualization . Currently, Intel 64-bit multi-

core processors and ARM Cortex-A15 platforms are supported . Virtualization Profile utilizes

the power of VxWorks to provide virtualization capabilities and can run other operating

systems inside virtual machines (VMs) .

From an architectural view, Virtualization Profile adds a hypervisor (referred to as the

hypervisor kernel) into VxWorks . During the VxWorks boot process, this hypervisor layer is

activated and VxWorks will continue to execute in a VM . This first VM is the management

VM and is referred to as the root OS . It is a fully functional single-core VxWorks instance that

provides services to the hypervisor kernel . Examples of these services are the configuration

interface as well as certain device virtualization capabilities .

WIND RIVER WORKBENCH DEVELOPMENT SUITE

Workbench is an Eclipse-based development suite for creating and building projects,

establishing and managing host-to-target communications, and configuring, debugging,

and monitoring the VxWorks operating system as well as VxWorks applications running on

a simulator or real hardware . Through its powerful combination of capabilities, integration,

and availability, Workbench enables standardization on a common environment for device

software development, helping project teams improve effectiveness .

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Workbench offers:

• Best-in-class capability for both platform developers and application developers through-

out the entire device software development lifecycle

• Broad availability to support increased standardization across projects

– Multiple-target OS support, including support for VxWorks 7, VxWorks 653 Multi-core

Edition, and Linux

– Target processor support for POWER Architecture, Intel, and ARM architectures

• Extensible framework based on Eclipse to seamlessly integrate third-party and in-house

plugins for customization and scalability

Workbench includes significant new capabilities to support development team productivity:

• General Workbench enhancements

– Integration of the latest versions of Eclipse and CDT development frameworks

– Usability improvements of target connection workflows

– CLI for driving project creation and builds

– Updated host OS support

• New connection technology

– Switch to use of standard Eclipse TCF communication channel

– Single TCF connection for all tools

– Auto-detection of targets

• VxWorks platform enhancements

– New configurable core dump

– Simple wizards for creating VxWorks-based projects

Eclipse is used as the framework for the Workbench development suite because of its award-

winning openness, capability, and strong industry support . The Eclipse framework supplies

the necessary infrastructure to graphically and functionally integrate the components of

Workbench . Open, extensible, and backed by a large community of commercial and open

source developers, the Eclipse framework provides developers using Workbench a wide

range of additional integrated functionalities . More information on Eclipse and available

third-party plugins is available from the Eclipse Marketplace at www .marketplace .eclipse .org .

Project System

The Workbench project system allows the organization and management of the primary

components in a device software development project, including source files and target

systems . VxWorks projects of different types can be created for configuring and building

the VxWorks source, kernel images, and BSPs as well as application projects based on RTPs

or user-developed kernel modules . By design, Workbench enables the management of

multiple projects simultaneously .

Build System

The Workbench build system specifies the tools, options, and parameters to use when

building device software projects, enabling the setting of build parameters easily from the

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16 | Product Note

project level down to the individual file level . The build system allows for everything from

simple global build settings to fine-grained control at the level of an individual file .

Command-Line Build System

In addition to the Workbench build system, a full-featured command-line build system

is provided if this type of environment is preferred . Using wrtool, you can configure

VxWorks source and build VxWorks images as well as develop applications and libraries

using command-line build facilities . These command-line tools are often integrated into a

customized build system . Wrtool also creates the corresponding project inside Workbench .

This allows for seamless integration of CLI and UI workflows; for example, setting up a

Workbench project using a script .

Debugger

The Workbench debugger addresses the needs of developers involved with firmware/

driver/BSP development, kernel development, and application development . It provides

more capability than the GNU debugger (GDB) or other basic source-level debuggers, and

includes unique and powerful debugging features such as multiple contexts debugging

and Live Patch . The Workbench debugger includes the ability to debug VxWorks targets

via full kernel, task, and RTP debugging, including with visibility and synchronous control

of tasks associated with an RTP . These capabilities can be extended further with system

analysis and rapid development for VxWorks . The Workbench debugger supports VxWorks

debugging for single-core processors as well as multi-core processors . Workbench allows

the debugging of code running in multiple contexts simultaneously, specifically:

• Multiple cores

• Multiple tasks/processes/threads

• Multiple RTPs or downloadable kernel modules (DKMs)

• Multiple physical processors

• Multiple processor types

• Multiple boards

• Multiple target operating systems

The Workbench debugger provides extensive browsing and inspection capabilities on

objects in the target platform . This awareness of VxWorks objects allows hard-to-diagnose

problems to be solved quickly, ensuring high levels of productivity throughout a project .

VxWorks Simulator

Wind River VxWorks Simulator is a complete prototyping and simulation tool for VxWorks

applications . It supports simulation of SMP systems up to a maximum of 32 CPUs on any

supported host and 64-bit operation on supported 64-bit host platforms . It enables the

development and testing of significant portions of applications earlier in the development

cycle, before hardware is available . It can also lower development costs by requiring fewer

hardware targets to be shared through host-based development . The simulator is fully

integrated into the Workbench development environment as a target connection, allowing

complete configuration and debugging control through standard interfaces .

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17 | Product Note

VxWorks Simulator is a native application that has been ported from the VxWorks operating

system to implement the sophisticated features of VxWorks accurately, including SMP,

RTPs, memory protection, file systems, and UNIX-style networking (TCP/IP, rlogin, etc .) .

The simulator also provides network simulation capabilities that enable the creation

of complete simulations of complex networks consisting of multiple IPv4, IPv6, or other

protocols, subnets, and routing systems . The simulator runs on the chosen host workstation,

decreasing the need for evaluation hardware early in the development cycle . It also

provides easy access to the host operating system API, so you can use the host facilities and

peripherals in a simulation; for example, a PCI card used in a final system can be installed on

the host machine and then accessed by the simulator .

VxWorks Source Build Configuration

Workbench provides a project type that allows the configuring and building of custom

VxWorks libraries, which can then be used as the basis for VxWorks image projects . This

project type supports the creation and management of VxWorks source build (VSB) projects .

These projects are based on a specific BSP and allow customers to adjust build options

and content to match a specific application . The selected options are used to rebuild the

VxWorks runtime sources to fit that configuration . Also included is the ability to create VSB

RTP project source builds .

VxWorks Kernel Configurator

VxWorks Kernel Configurator is a graphical utility that simplifies and accelerates the

task of selecting the operating system components that must be included in a bootable

VxWorks image . In addition to configuring VxWorks images for single-core processors,

VxWorks Kernel Configurator allows the creation of SMP projects on any supported AMP

target . When creating a new bootable kernel image, Workbench analyzes available kernel

components as well as BSP and compiler selections . The configurator displays a summary

of the key configuration data, such as the number of selected components or data and text

size . A bundle selector allows the quick inclusion or exclusion of dedicated configuration

bundles composed of multiple components from a kernel image . Sample configuration

bundles provided with the configurator include components needed for POSIX compliance,

RTP development, or error management . Selecting kernel components individually allows

greater flexibility and control over a VxWorks image . VxWorks Kernel Configurator analyzes

component dependencies and highlights conflicts when components are required but not

yet selected, or if components are incompatible with one another . An autoscale feature

analyzes the entire VxWorks image and removes unused kernel components that could

increase the size of a bootable image unnecessarily .

Debug Shell

The debug shell, formerly known as the host shell, provides a CLI (similar to GDB) . From this

shell, developers can do the following:

• Download application modules on the target

• Create and debug tasks that invoke both VxWorks kernel and application module routines

• Run, debug, and monitor processes on the target

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18 | Product Note

Kernel Shell

The VxWorks kernel shell runs within the VxWorks kernel and provides direct access to

VxWorks through a console or a network connection such as Telnet . The kernel shell is

often used when control or visibility into system status is needed outside of a development

environment . The task information display includes the CPU or core on which tasks run . A

tip utility—similar to the UNIX tip utility—is available to enable the use of the kernel shell

across multiple instances of VxWorks in a multi-core configuration . This capability makes it

possible to display output from one or more cores on the same console of a separate host

machine and to log onto individual cores remotely and execute shell commands on them .

The kernel shell command interpreter can dynamically spawn tasks in RTPs as well as in the

kernel, making it useful for debugging purposes . The kernel shell can also dynamically call

routines in RTPs without the overhead of having to create and spawn a task each time a

routine is dynamically called .

Core Dump

Kernel core dump allows a system execution to be analyzed post-mortem to identify why a

system crashed . Kernel core dump generation is triggered either by fatal kernel exception

or by user request . Following the generation of a kernel core dump, the kernel is then

rebooted . Thanks to the warm boot facility, the core dump is preserved in memory . Once

the system comes up, the kernel core dump is uploaded to a host where it can then be

analyzed .

Similarly, RTP core dump allows an RTP execution to be analyzed post-mortem to identify

the cause of RTP crashes . After an RTP core dump has been generated, it can be uploaded

to a host where it can then be analyzed . No system reboot is necessary .

Both kernel and RTP core dumps are useful in deployed systems where it is not practical to

connect the target to a host machine in order to debug the system .

OPTIONAL WORKBENCH TOOL ADD-ONS FOR VxWORKS PLATFORMS

Workbench System Analysis Profile for VxWorks

System Viewer

System Viewer provides detailed analysis and graphical visualization of VxWorks system

events, revealing the complex interactions of tasks, interrupts, and system objects of an

application executing on a target . Context switches are clearly shown, as are system events

such as semaphores, message queues, signals, tasks, timers, and user events . System

Viewer allows device software developers to detect anomalous behavior quickly and then

understand the cause and effect by reviewing the complete history of events leading up to

the problem, including error management events from VxWorks .

System Browser

System Browser provides a set of instruments that aggregate system events and resource

usage on a high level, but also allows problems to be pinpointed down to an individual

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19 | Product Note

core, process, or even source code level . A preference interface enables configuring a

session in time and spatial aspects for displaying results . It also allows the ability to focus

the instrument target from processor level down to task level .

The instrument set includes the Memory Analyzer, CPU Profiler, and I/O throughput .

Instrumented resources can be customized for an endless combination of analysis details .

Memory Analyzer

Memory Analyzer analyzes memory usage in a running real-time embedded system . It pro-

vides a summary of each allocated block of memory in the system, allowing the detection

of problems such as memory leaks early in the development process .

Memory Analyzer is designed to analyze C, C++, and assembly language programs . For

operating system and processor versions supported by this release, see the release notes

for your platform .

CPU Profiler

CPU Profiler analyzes CPU spending cycles and provides a detailed function-by-function

analysis, breaking down the individual functions within the processes consuming the CPU .

Workbench Rapid Development Profile for VxWorks

Advanced Simulation Platform

Workbench integrates advanced simulation platforms that allow the quick configuration

and building of systems that include applications . Advanced Simulation Platform allows

you to directly build a system for a specified architecture without real hardware, since the

simulator executes the code for that particular architecture . The Advanced Simulation

Platform simulator also provides the ability to do reverse execution and to take a snapshot

of a system using a checkpoint feature in order to reload it later into Workbench . Advanced

Simulation Platform is available with Rapid Development Profile .

Live Patch

The Live Patch feature allows a function to be updated while running in the debugger

without restarting the application . Modify the source code in the editor and as soon as the

source code is saved, Live Patch builds the modified function and pushes the new binary to

the running target .

Live Patch provides powerful troubleshooting capabilities in cases where a traditional

debugger would be inadequate, as in these specific conditions:

• It takes a long time to rebuild the application . Rebuilding only a very small subset of the

application and pushing just this subset to the target would save time .

• It takes time to push the application to the target .

• The system needs time to restart .

• The issue being debugged takes time to reproduce . Restarting the debug session from

scratch with the new piece of code takes too long or the issue is difficult to reproduce .

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20 | Product Note

App Designer Toolkit for VxWorks

App Designer Toolkit for VxWorks is an add-on product that allows you to provide a

full VxWorks and Workbench application development environment with a predefined

VxWorks configuration on a set piece of hardware . Provide the customized VxWorks

Software Development Kit (VxSDK) to end-customers or external development partners to

build applications without having to provide device hardware details or requiring VxWorks

development skills . Similar to the application development model for iPhone and Android—

where deep knowledge of the processor, hardware, or operating system is not required—a

VxSDK end-user can build applications with the documented VxSDK information, defining

the available APIs and their existing application development knowledge of C or C++ .

The VxSDK is automatically configured with a compiler, debugger, and an easy-to-use

development environment so the end-customers can build applications for a specific

VxWorks-based device .

ARCHITECTURES, HOSTS, AND BSPS

Supported Architectures

• ARM

• POWER Architecture

• Intel

• Others on demand

Supported BSPs

Together with its partners, Wind River offers the most extensive range of BSPs in the

embedded software industry to aid with board bring-up and design . Refer to the BSP section

of Wind River Marketplace (www .marketplace .windriver .com) for the latest information on

all supported target architectures and processor families . For the latest VxWorks 7 BSPs,

refer to the “VxWorks: 7 - Wind River Workbench 4 .0” section of Marketplace .

Supported Hosts

Refer to the product release notes for the latest information on all supported hosts .

WIND RIVER PARTNER ECOSYSTEM

The Wind River partner ecosystem ensures tight integration between our core technologies

and those of the premier hardware and software companies chosen to complement our

solutions . Our partners help extend the capabilities of Wind River development and runtime

platforms by offering out-of-the-box integration and support for key technologies in the

fast-moving RTOS market . Our customer support team is trained to troubleshoot partner

technologies in use with Wind River products, making ours the most comprehensive and

best-supported partner ecosystem in the embedded and mobile industries .

For additional information about our partner ecosystem, visit www .windriver .com/partners .

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21 | Product Note

WIND RIVER MARKETPLACE

Add to the functionality of VxWorks with best-in-class software from our trusted partners .

Packages on Marketplace are tested and validated for seamless interoperability to

accelerate development processes and foster design innovation . Visit www .marketplace .

windriver .com for the latest Wind River partner package offerings and supported BSPs .

Also found in Marketplace, new beta software packages from Wind River help accelerate

projects with the latest technology updates being considered for VxWorks . These features

are offered as a preview to customers before they become officially supported features in

Wind River product lines and offer a forum for providing feedback and suggestions .

WIND RIVER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Wind River Professional Services offers insights, expertise, and resources built from 30 years

of leadership in the embedded software industry .

Professional Services works with your development teams so they can focus on core

competencies and deliver market-leading devices, systems, and networks, as well as bring

safe, secure, reliable, and compliant mission-critical products to market quickly .

Professional Services provides:

• Safety certification: Professional Services provides software certification services, tools,

and technologies to help our customers address their most demanding software compli-

ance and standards requirements .

• Consulting and planning: Professional Services software architects work collaboratively

with your design and program teams to identify system requirements, detail platform

system options, and provide recommendations for meeting business, technical, and pro-

gram goals .

• Development and integration: To save time and money, collaborate with Professional

Services to accelerate development timelines and optimize software . Our experts can

help ensure your vision and design are implemented with high quality and efficiency .

• Long-term platform management: Free up your team to work on new projects and let

Professional Services maintain your customized Wind River product platforms, helping to

lower the total lifetime costs of supporting your products and boosting your bottom line .

• IoT: Let the new Professional Services IoT Practice team assist you in getting your unique

IoT solutions to market quickly . Professional Services experts can help get an end-to-end

IoT system configured and running, optimize performance, meet security requirements,

and develop your applications on the Web .

For more information, visit www .windriver .com/services .Our award-winning team is here to

assist you with support services that fit your needs and your budget .

VxWORKS

WIND RIVER CUSTOMER SUPPORT

VxWorks is backed by our award-winning global support organization . With six major support

centers, additional support hubs, and more than 150 experts worldwide, you can get the help

you need in the language and time zone that work best for you . Our online Wind River Support

Network provides multifaceted self-help options, including an active Q&A Forum . Optional

premium services are available, including designated support engineers and hosting of

customer-specific environments . Wind River Customer Support has achieved Service Capability

and Performance certification and is a recipient of the Confirmit Achievement in Customer

Excellence (ACE) award for outstanding achievement in global customer support . For more

information, visit www .windriver .com/support .

WIND RIVER EDUCATION SERVICES

With more than 30 years of embedded software experience, Wind River provides education

services in every region of the world . We offer flexible training options to meet your business

and learning needs, including public, private, and custom courses . For your specific project

challenges, Wind River Mentoring provides coaching by experienced engineers to help you

integrate Wind River solutions into your environment . And when you’re too busy to attend a

whole class, our on-demand learning options provide around-the-clock access to advanced

and specialized topics . All of our education services are led by expert engineers who are closely

connected to the Wind River technical community for access to specific expertise . For VxWorks

we offer deeply technical hands-on courses, including “VxWorks 7 and Workbench Essentials”

and “VxWorks Application Debugging Use Cases,” among others . For more information, visit

www .windriver .com/education .

CONTACT SUPPORT

North America, South America, and Asia/Pacific

support@windriver.com

Toll-free: 800-872-4977

(800-USA-4WRS)

Tel.: 510-748-4100

Fax: 510-749-2164

North and South America hours:

6:00 a.m to 5:00 p.m. (GMT-8)

APAC hours: 9:00 a.m.to 6:00 p.m.

(local time)

Japan

support-jp@windriver.com

Tel.: +81 3 5778 6001

Fax: +81 3 5778 6003

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

(local time)

Europe, Middle East, Africa

support-ec@windriver.com

Toll-free: +800 4977 4977

France tel.: +33 1 64 86 66 10

France fax: +33 1 64 86 66 66

Germany tel.: +49 899 624 45 444

Germany fax: +49 899 624 45 999

Middle East region tel.: +972 9741

9561

Middle East region fax: +972 9746

0867

UK tel.: +44 1793 831 393

UK fax: +44 1793 831 808

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

(local time)

Wind River is a global leader in delivering software for the Internet of Things . The company’s technology is found in more than 2 billion devices, backed by world-class professional services and customer support . Wind River delivers the software and expertise that enable the innovation and deployment of safe, secure, and reliable intelligent systems .

© 2016 Wind River Systems, Inc . The Wind River logo is a trademark of Wind River Systems, Inc ., and Wind River and VxWorks are registered trademarks of Wind River Systems, Inc . Rev . 09/2016

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