CoreDX DDS in Embedded Systems
The small-footprint of CoreDX DDS opens the door for exciting embedded applications
Tiny computers are our passion, so CoreDX DDS is perfectly at home is small form factor processors.
Overview
CoreDX DDS the leader in small footprint publish-subscribe middleware. The full-featured CoreDX DDS library is measured in KiloBytes not MegaBytes. This compact implementation is truly unique in the middleware industry. With our small footprint and minimal run-time resource usage, CoreDX will fit where your applications do. We've run CoreDX DDS applications, including the interoperable Shapes Demo on a number of these small computers, including a number of the Gumstix and ARM platforms.
Gumstix Platforms
In preparation for the second Multi-Vendor DDS Interoperability Demonstration, we ported the CoreDX DDS interoperability applications to the Gumstix Verdex Pro platform. This small form factor computer-on-module platform includes a Marvell PXA270 processor, 128MB RAM, and multiple I/O options. For the demonstration, we have attached a small LCD panel and a WiFi module. The Gumstix runs a trimmed down Linux distribution, and offers a familiar development environment. These platforms have signification potential in Unmanned Vehicle applications or anywhere that size, weight, and power are critical resources. You can find more information about Gumstix here.
Shown here is the Gumstix VerdexPro running the CoreDX DDS shapes interoperability demo software. The geometric objects (shape, size, position, and color) are communicated through DDS to the application on the VerdexPro over a wireless network. The graphics are drawn on the LCD using the DirectFB library, and are updated at 20Hz. The ddsping interoperability application was also ported to the Gumstix platform.
These applications were be demonstrated at the Multi-Vendor DDS Interoperability Demonstration during the Real-Time and Embedded Systems Workshop. See the OMG site for more information on this event.
ARM Platforms
In addition to the Gumstix platforms, ARM processors are found in a variety of low-powered devices. Currently most smartphones and tablet computers host ARM processors. CoreDX DDS supports a variety of operating systems on ARM platforms, including Android and QNX. The CoreDX DDS Shapes Demonstration is available for Android/ARM devices: download the demonstration.
MIPS Platforms
MIPS hardware is commonly used in consumer electronic devices such as routers, residential gateways, and video game consoles. These platforms can make excellent usage of the CoreDX DDS middleware, bringing high performance, flexible, standards-based data communications to these embedded applications. CoreDX DDS supports multiple operating systems on a variety of MIPS processors.
FPGA Platforms
FPGAs are typically used for industrial control, signal processing, and other specialized applications. These embedded environments are typically so resource contrained that communications middlewares are not even considered a viable option. CoreDX DDS is changing this perspective. It's small footprint and portability bring the rich feature set of DDS to these specialized embedded applications. For example, CoreDX DDS was recently ported to run on a Xilinks FPGA with a Microblaze soft CPU.