Chapter 13. Porting eCos

Getting your application running on your new target hardware platform is typically the main goal in embedded software development. This typically includes porting eCos to the target hardware as well. eCos Swas designed for portability by using a layered approach to the different software system components. When porting eCos, moving the HAL to the new target hardware is the first step, which enables the higher layer components, such as the kernel, to also run on the target hardware. Additional functionality, such as display drivers and Ethernet drivers, can then be incorporated to meet the requirements of the system and get the system fully operational.

Because of the unique nature of each new target hardware system, it is impossible to cover every possible detail for each target system. Instead, in this chapter, we look at a platform porting example to get an overall understanding of the eCos porting process. Using one of the supported evaluation platforms as a baseline, we can add a new target platform to the eCos framework and see how to get this new platform up and running using the eCos tools. We can then go through some of the details that might need to be addressed in other porting procedures.