1.3. Architecture Overview

eCos is designed as a configurable component architecture consisting of several key software components such as the kernel and the HAL. The fundamental goal is to allow construction of a complete embedded system from these reusable software components. This allows you to select different configuration options within the software component, or remove unused components altogether, in order to create a system that specifically matches the requirements of your application. By creating an eCos image that closely matches your system requirements, the size of the software is compact, only including used components. The software application is also faster because extra code is not executed, compared to other real-time operating systems that do not offer configurability and, therefore, incorporate all functionality regardless if it is required by the application.

Figure 1.1 shows an example of how the core building blocks, and some of the optional components available in the eCos system, can be layered together to incorporate the functionality needed for a specific application.