readx;

Chapter 308 is worth doing

"Control systems and software?"

When Lin Hong heard Grandpa Xu's words, his heart couldn't help but move. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Used to control machinery, generally embedded operating system, this kind of system has a characteristic, that is, real-time, so usually, this kind of operating system is a real-time operating system, compared with the popular time-sharing operating system on the PC or server, the real-time operating system has very strict regulations on the time to produce results.

When external triggers or data are generated, the real-time operating system must react, and this response must be completed within a specific time.

Real-time operating systems are widely used in communications, industrial, military, aviation, and aerospace fields. Because control systems in these areas must be real-time, any delay can have catastrophic consequences.

Of course, some of the more general-purpose control systems, such as Microsoft's OS/390, also have some real-time operating system features. But overall, they can't compare to operating systems designed to handle real-time tasks.

It can be seen from Xu Zhizhong's words that China is not only backward in civilian use in this regard, but also has no mature solutions in the military field.

Thinking of this, Lin Hong asked a few questions in detail, mainly the technical details of the real-time operating system.

Xu Zhizhong was also a little surprised, Lin Hong seemed to be very researched in this regard, and the few questions asked were the difficulties they actually encountered in the process of doing the project.

"Xiaohong, why are you so familiar with this piece? What did you learn abroad? ”

Lin Hong nodded: "There are many basic knowledge, and there are already relatively systematic theories in foreign universities, and you can see these things in the library." But I'm usually interested in these things, so I've done some research. Grandpa Xu, when I came back to start the company this time, I had the intention of developing an operating system, and I have already made some progress. ”

"Oh?" Xu Zhizhong was slightly surprised, "You still opened a company?" It seems that you have been abroad for a few years and have learned a lot. ”

He didn't pay much attention to the development of the operating system, but was more concerned about Lin Hong's company.

Lin Hong nodded: "It was opened in the provincial capital, and it has just started. ”

Xu Zhizhong continued to ask, "You don't continue to go to school?" ”

"Of course, keep going." Sun Jingtai said at this time, "You don't know yet, Xiaohong just came back this time and took the provincial champion." ”

"Oh? That's great! Xu Zhizhong nodded, feeling a little relieved in his heart.

In his opinion, Lin Hong is still young, and continuing to work scientific and cultural knowledge is the right way, and there is no need to rush to open a company to make money.

"Grandpa Xu, did you research and write the core code of your control system by yourself?"

Xu Zhizhong nodded: "Yes, you don't dare to use other people's systems in this regard, once something goes wrong, it will cause serious consequences." However, because there is no more general system code, each time it is rewritten according to the corresponding hardware, not only the platform dependency is too strong, there is no reusability, and the functions can only barely meet the requirements, which is very difficult to maintain. ”

Xu Zhizhong was also a little helpless when he said this. There is no suitable real-time operating system platform to choose from in China, every time a new project is developed, the entire control system has to be rewritten, which not only greatly reduces the development progress, but also has a very high difficulty in maintenance.

In general, the upgrade of equipment, for them, the technicians, is actually the last thing they want to see. Once upgraded, it can mean that a lot of code needs to be rewritten, and a lot of time and effort is required to debug.

Therefore, the hardware equipment used in this part of the army is basically very backward, and their primary pursuit is stability rather than performance, and they will not pursue the latest chips or accessories that have just come out of the market.

Lin Hong knows very well that this kind of development method of writing code specifically for a certain kind of hardware is actually quite backward, which is the case in the early stage of the development of the control system, but although this method is relatively simple and straightforward to write, it may take a lot of time and energy to maintain, because most of the code cannot be reused and must be rewritten for new hardware.

Internationally, this development method has long been abandoned, and many embedded real-time operating system platforms have appeared in this field, the most famous of which are VXIPS, PowerPC, INTELI960, SPARC designed and developed by Windriver in 1983...... Wait a minute. With its good reliability and excellent real-time performance, it is widely used in communications, military, aviation, aerospace and other high-precision technologies and fields with high real-time requirements, such as satellite communications, military exercises, ballistic guidance, aircraft navigation, etc.

As far as Lin Hong knows, this system is used in the United States F-16, F/A-18 fighter jets, B-2 stealth bombers and Patriot missiles.

Of course, the core code of this system is not open source, and although it is possible to cooperate with Wind River through normal commercial channels, this is not possible in the military field at present, because there is a fear that these operating systems will be implanted with backdoors and lead to secret leaks.

"Grandpa Xu, our company intends to develop an embedded real-time operating system like VXWORKS, if our company succeeds in development, is there any possibility of cooperation with the military?"

Lin Hong asked so much, this is what he wants to say the most.

Xu Zhizhong was stunned for a moment, he glanced at Lin Hong, and saw that he didn't seem to be joking, so he couldn't help but seriously think about this possibility.

At present, in Western countries like the United States, many military developments are usually outsourced to civilian research institutions and companies, such as universities, arms companies and research institutes, such as the B-2 stealth bomber, which is developed by MIT and Northrop. Grumman worked together in the 1980s for the U.S. Air Force.

However, in China, all national defense science, technology, industry and military enterprises are basically state-owned, and there is basically no private capital to enter at present, and there are many reasons for this phenomenon, such as the lack of strength of private enterprises, or the consideration of security and confidentiality reasons.

However, if there is really a company that can develop an excellent embedded real-time operating system, as Lin Hong said, can it be directly introduced into military equipment for use?

From Xu Zhizhong's personal point of view, this matter should not be a big problem, at least he can accept it as a director. The key is that the company must be in the country and completely credible.

"It's not impossible, as long as it's okay in terms of security and functionality, it should be fine." Xu Zhizhong finally nodded slightly.

He re-attached himself to what Lin Hong said before, originally he thought that the operating system developed by Lin Hong referred to those time-sharing systems on the PC, but at this time he realized that it seemed to be a real-time operating system for embedded.

"You're going to develop a real-time operating system?" He asked, surprised.

Lin Hong's face did not change, and his heart did not beat: "Yes." ”

In fact, this matter was simply a temporary idea in Lin Hong's heart, and there was no shadow at all.

Xu Zhizhong's interest was raised: "Tell me about your progress." ”

So, Lin Hong began to talk eloquently: "At present, the prototype has not come out, but the design of the core has been completed." Our kernel architecture is a microkernel that only provides a multitasking environment, inter-process communication, and synchronization capabilities. Multi-task scheduling adopts priority-based preemption mode, and supports time-slice scheduling between tasks of the same priority......"

Lin Hong is quite familiar with the design of operating systems, and has studied many uncommon operating systems, and in a hurry, a kernel prototype of an embedded real-time operating system appeared in his mind.

Xu Zhizhong was able to maintain a normal heart at first, but the more he listened to it, the more surprised the look on his face became thicker, and in the end, his eyes lit up a little.

The system that Lin Hong described was exactly what all the technicians in their institute were looking for. In the process of development, we have fantasized about such a platform countless times, and have tried to research it ourselves many times, but due to various reasons, this project has not been successfully promoted.

If there really is a private company that can make such a system, it can greatly shorten their R&D time, so that they can focus entirely on their core business, rather than on the control system and software.

Judging from Lin Hong's words, their progress seems to be really good, Xu Zhizhong is very familiar with the details of the control system, and after hearing some technical details that Lin Hong said, he completely believed his words.

At the same time, Lin Hong's familiarity with this system also surprised him very much, but after all, he had seen Lin Hong's perverted IQ, and he was also a little mentally prepared at the moment, which was acceptable.

He didn't know at all that his proud protégé was not speaking at all at this time, and the microkernel he was talking about was actually still only in his brain.

"When will your system prototype come out?" Xu Zhizhong asked with some expectation.

"This ...... I can't say specifically, but it should be within half a year, mainly because the current developers are not easy to recruit, and if there are enough people, this time can be greatly shortened. ”

Compared with such a system, half a year's research and development time is already very short, so Xu Zhizhong was not surprised to hear his words.

"Xiaohong, this matter is very meaningful and worth doing!" Xu Zhizhong encouraged, "The application of embedded systems is still very extensive, whether it is military or civilian, the potential is very huge. Especially now that the electronics industry is developing so rapidly. ”

At this time, he also understood the specific reason why Lin Hong told him about this matter.

After a deep sigh, he continued: "You can make the prototype of this system as soon as possible, if you can meet the requirements, it is not impossible to win the army's list. ”

! #