Applications include video servers, communications packet switch routing and control, networked office equipment, process supervisory control, workcell control, electronic test instrumentation control, and medical instrumentation.
The LynxOS kernel was designed to meet "hard" real-time requirements, such as short interrupt and preemption latencies, deterministic "worst case" task response, and fast context switching, scheduling, and interprocess communications. The kernel is modular, compact, and ROMable, allowing developers to target embedded applications.
AT&T System V and 4.3 BSD system-call interfaces and libraries provide compatibility with UNIX. Code written for UNIX can be easily ported to LynxOS and vice versa. LynxOS has been certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to have passed the POSIX Conformance Test Suite which demonstrates conformance to FIPS PUB 151-1 and POSIX 1003.1 (certification performed using LynxOS version 2.2 for 386/486/Pentium).
In addition, Lynx has implemented drafts of the real-time and threads extensions to POSIX. Lynx plans to deliver the POSIX .4 real-time extensions standard for PowerPC in 1995.
By fully exploiting the microprocessor's memory management unit (MMU), LynxOS is a true multi-process operating system. Each process, which may consist of multiple threads of execution, is given its own separate, protected memory space.
Programming and debugging complex applications is far easier, application portability to different computer architectures is straightforward, and system reliability is greatly improved over single address space operating systems.
LynxOS for PowerPC supports the PowerPC 601, 603 and 604. It has been available from 1994 as a Porting Kit and as Source Code. The Porting Kit, which is targeted at developers of custom embedded designs, consists of:
Although the porting kit consists primarily of object code files, it also includes source code for hardware-dependent operating system files that are required by developers to port LynxOS to any custom design based on the supported microprocessors.
LynxOS has been ported to the leading open system computer microprocessors, including the 386, 486, Pentium, MC68030, MC68040, SPARC 2, MicroSPARC, and R3000. Reference Platform support packages are available to support popular computer platforms based on these microprocessors.