Project Description
Embedded systems traditionally run monolithic and single-purpose software, due to the limited resources available and the low complexity of their task.
But, as the complexity of the modern processors increase year after year, newer architectures require the presence of an Operating System (OS).
This software is responsible for managing computer hardware and software resources and must be perfectly integrated with them to guarantee optimal performances.
FlashRunner features an Operating System, that is developed by SMH and running on top of the Linux Kernel.
In this article, we will explore the major components and functionalities it offers.
Hardware Abstraction
The main purpose of the FlashRunner OS is to abstract and manage access to hardware resources. This is achieved by a set of stable APIs offered to device drivers – the dynamic libraries that implement DUTs specific programming algorithms.
Through them indeed, the device driver can control the FlashRunner hardware in a manner which is compliant with the DUTs requirements. This includes, but not only, voltage I/O, timings, and protocol interface configurations.
System functionalities
The FlashRunner OS implements all the high level features of system management.
More of them are under the hood, indeed the user does not directly interact with them and just benefits clearly.
Indeed, they are offered transparently during all the time of system utilization and comprise channel parallelism, command handling, error management, data integrity, and operation log. Moreover, also user-oriented functionalities are present, to improve system usability and deal with complex scenarios.
These features are highly configurable to match the constantly evolving user’s needs.
Cyber security, account management, and voltage monitor are examples of the most interesting and complex ones, but also the basic ones are fundamentals like file management and network configuration.
Compatibility
All functionalities and advantages that FlashRunner OS brings, are not specific for one single SMH product.
Special effort is made to allow FlashRunner OS to run on our latest products, that is FlashRunner 2.0, NXG, and HS/AM.
This offers a high strategic technological advantage that allows SMH Technologies to easily scale up on different boards minimizing the time and the cost required to support new technologies and protocols.
More details about the functionalities here mentioned can be found in the dedicated articles on our blog: https://smh-tech.com/corporate-blog_category/technical-updates/