Academic Company Events NI Developer Zone Support Solutions Products & Services Contact NI MyNI
1 ratings:
 5 out of 5     Rate this Document

What Operating System is my Real-Time Controller Running and Why?

Primary Software: LabVIEW Modules>>Real-Time Module
Primary Software Version: 8.6.1
Primary Software Fixed Version: N/A
Secondary Software: N/A

Problem:
What operating system is my real-time controller running, and why are there different Real-Time Operating Systems on different hardware targets?

Solution:
Each series of Real-Time targets runs on one of two Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSes), IntervalZero Phar Lap ETS or Wind River VxWorks. The table below specifies the real-time operating system installed on each series of real-time controllers.  You can also run the attached OSversion.vi on your Real-Time target to determine which RTOS it is running.

Controller Series RTOS
FieldPoint Phar Lap ETS
cFP-20xx Phar Lap ETS
cFP-21xx Phar Lap ETS
cFP-22xx VxWorks
cRIO-900x Phar Lap ETS
cRIO-901x VxWorks
cRIO-902x VxWorks
cRIO-907x VxWorks
sbRIO-96xx VxWorks
CVS-14xx Phar Lap ETS
PXI[e]-81xx Phar Lap ETS
NI 8353 RT Phar Lap ETS
NI 17xx Smart Camera VxWorks
Desktop ETS Phar Lap ETS






















The version of the real-time operating system is dependent on the version of LabVIEW Real-Time installed. The following Table specifies the real-time operating system version installed with different versions of LabVIEW Real-Time.   The attached OSversion.vi will also return this information.

RTOS

LabVIEW Real-Time

Phar Lap ETS 9.1

7.1

Phar Lap ETS 10.1

8.0

Phar Lap ETS 12.0

8.2.1

Phar Lap ETS 13.0

8.5

Phar Lap ETS 13.1

8.5.1 - 8.6

VxWorks 6.1

8.2 - 8.2.1

VxWorks 6.3

8.5 - 8.6


LabVIEW Real-Time support began on x86 based targets and used Phar Lap, now named ETS. ETS does not support PowerPC based targets, which have advantages over x86 for small embedded targets, so LabVIEW Real-Time added support for VxWorks.

From a programmer's point of view, it should make very little difference when you are writing your application. LabVIEW should run and execute the same on VxWorks based targets as it does on ETS and even Windows targets. However, some things are going to be different, such as calling external code which would have to be compiled differently. Some of the differences on a VxWorks target are laid out in KnowledgeBase 44HDTKQ0: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for NI cRIO-901x and cRIO-907x. In general, you can run the same code on an ETS and a VxWorks target, it just needs to be recompiled for that target in LabVIEW.

Related Links:
Developer Zone Tutorial: Selecting Your LabVIEW Real-Time Deployment Platform
KnowledgeBase 44HDTKQ0: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for NI cRIO-901x and cRIO-907x
LabVIEW Real-Time Module Help: Unsupported LabVIEW Features (ETS) (RT Module)
LabVIEW Real-Time Module Help: Unsupported LabVIEW Features (VxWorks) (RT Module)
KnowledgeBase 4AJCLGCY: Phar Lap ETS and VxWorks Compliance with Internet Protocols

Attachments:
OSversion.vi




Report Date: 05/28/2008
Last Updated: 04/15/2009
Document ID: 4LRA4IQ0

Your Feedback! poor Poor  |  Excellent excellent   Yes No
 Document Quality? 
 Answered Your Question? 
  1 2 3 4 5
Please Contact NI for all product and support inquiries.submit