Shulou(Shulou.com)06/02 Report--

With the rapid development of the Internet of things industry, the type and number of Internet of things devices are also growing rapidly. According to Gartner, there will be more than 26 billion devices of the Internet of things in the world by 2020, and the market size of the Internet of things will reach 1.9 trillion US dollars. Different from the traditional IT field, the devices of the Internet of things are distributed in different fields with different functions and forms, which poses a great challenge to the Internet of things.

Embedded system becomes the key factor

The Internet of things relies on the Internet to complete the transmission of information, and the addition of embedded systems makes information transmission more specific. Before the emergence of the Internet of things, embedded system has a history of more than 30 years, but it has been hidden behind the scenes. Since the rise of the Internet of things as a national strategy, embedded systems have also moved from the background to the foreground.

When it comes to embedded operating system, embedded Linux operating system can not be bypassed. Embedded Linux is to tailor and modify the Linux operating system to make it run on the embedded computer system. It has excellent performance, easy software transplantation, open code, and is supported by many application software. But it also has irreparable defects. Linux has a complex kernel, high software and hardware costs and high power consumption.

Because of the above shortcomings, real-time operating system RTOS (real-time operating system, English full name Real-time operating system) is often used in Internet of things situations such as high real-time requirements, strict cost control or low-power applications.

Corresponding to RTOS is TSOS (time-sharing operating system, English full name Time Sharing Operating System). Windows, Linux and Unix we are familiar with all belong to TSOS.

RTOS came out at the beginning because of the high cost of task switching in the early CPU. With the development of industry and the Internet of things, many special scenarios have high priority for the execution of important tasks. Therefore, the use of real-time operating system can avoid the wasted CPU time of frequently switching tasks, and can meet some scenarios with higher real-time requirements.

Of course, RTOS is not only a real-time feature, but also an operating system in essence. In order to meet the lightweight requirements of the Internet of things, RTOS generally has a very small size, very low power consumption and high startup speed, and provides rich components, tool chains and communities.

The Challenge faced by RTOS and the emergence of IoT OS

In the field of RTOS, FreeRTOS, which originated in the United States, accounts for half of the total. Foreign semiconductor companies such as TI, Freescale, Atmel, ST and other foreign semiconductor companies have chosen it as the default embedded operating system. In addition to FreeRTOS, uC/OS, RTX, QNX, VxWorks and other RTOS are also popular in foreign countries.

The vigorous development of the Internet of things has put forward new requirements and challenges to the traditional embedded operating system. Traditional RTOS, such as FreeRTOS and uC/OS, is only a kernel and has no upper components. It is difficult to meet the requirements of networking, storage, security, low power consumption and so on, and the cycle of developing software based on RTOS kernel is also quite long.

The Internet of things has had a comprehensive impact and subversion on equipment development, operation mode and industrial pattern. Equipment networking greatly increases the difficulty of terminal development, and fragmentation results in a huge waste of industrial resources. A standardized operating system (IoT OS) with rich middle-tier components will solve the above problems to a great extent.

In the era of the Internet of things, IoT OS has become the trend of the times, and its strategic value and status are not comparable to the core of RTOS in the embedded era. It is a software platform that provides access to the cloud for all terminals. Domestic and foreign giants are laying out and investing heavily.

RT-Thread 's small and beautiful networked operating system for domestic products

RT-Thread system is completely open source, it not only has a real-time system kernel, but also has rich middle-tier components, including relatively complete middleware components such as file system and graphics library, and a software platform with low power consumption, security, communication protocol support and cloud connectivity. With the rise and development of the Internet of things, RT-Thread is evolving into an IoT OS with powerful functions, rich components, easy to develop, high scalability and high security.

RT-Thread software architecture

The software architecture of RT-Thread consists of the following parts:

RT-Thread kernel: the core of RT-Thread, cross-hardware platform is one of the biggest benefits of using RT-Thread. RT-Thread supports all major CPU architectures, such as ARM, RISC-V, MIPS, Xtensa, X86, etc., as well as hundreds of MCU, wireless connection chips and application processors. Through the design of a scientific device framework, the upper application is independent of the lower hardware (including main control chip, sensor, wireless connection chip, etc.).

RT-Thread platform: based on the RT-Thread kernel of the upper software, long-term accumulation and development, so that RT-Thread has a perfect software ecology. Compatible with POSIX interface standards, it makes it easy to transplant Linux applications, and supports a variety of mainstream software interfaces and protocols such as CMSIS, Web Socket and so on. Support the mainstream development tools in the industry, such as GCC, IAR, Kail, etc.

Based on the excellent software architecture, RT-Thread can achieve the best loose coupling and modularization, which can be applied to the smallest MCU system (such as a sensor node) and can be easily extended to networked devices and high-end smart devices (such as smart speakers with Coretex-A7, dual-core A9 fan control devices).

RT-Thread software package, middleware: with complete middle-tier components, it covers almost all the basic software needed by the Internet of things industry, such as file system, low power management, network protocol, audio framework, SDK of mainstream IoT cloud, etc., which is one of the most important reasons for developers to choose RT-Thread. The software package ecology launched last year is also booming, with nearly 200 open source packages covering all categories available to developers. Software package ecology is very important for the choice of an operating system, because these software packages have a strong reusability and a high degree of modularization, which makes it very convenient for application developers to build the system they want in the shortest time.

JD.com Zhilian Cloud Internet of things operating system based on RT-Thread

JD.com Zhaopin Cloud launched the Internet of things operating system based on RT-Thread, including the service components customized by RT-Thread for JD.com Cloud, built-in JD.com Zhaopin Cloud Internet of things services and protocols, and provided a full set of Internet of things services, including distribution network, device control, OTA upgrade, security authentication and policy, greatly improving product access efficiency and enhancing security. It can be widely used in smart home, smart city, smart industry and other areas of the Internet of things, and it is the only choice for product intelligence upgrade and access to JD.com Zhi Lianyun.

Click "read" to get JD.com service components to quickly get started with the development of the Internet of things.

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