As µC/OS, a world-renowned embedded real-time operating system (RTOS), hits its 25th anniversary this year, it’s an ideal time to examine the kernel and address some of the many myths that have proliferated in the embedded market over the years.
1. The µC/OS kernels were community-developed.
Absolutely not. I wrote 100% of the code as well as a series of books describing the internals of the µC/OS kernels: µC/OS (1992), µC/OS-II (1998), and µC/OS-III (2008). The only help I got as an author was editing, but that’s typical for most authors. I did receive a lot of feedback from embedded developers, and of course evolved the code to satisfy some of those requests. But for the past couple of years, Micrium’s developers have been maintaining the code following the strict coding guidelines I established for Micrium.
That being said, I’m always keen on hearing from customers about their needs. Ultimately, for this reason, the µC/OS kernels are reflections of their users’ requirements. In this way, I feel we offer the “best of both worlds.” The kernels benefit from feedback and contributions submitted by users and the community, but they’re professionally developed and managed by a commercial entity.