retiSoft specializes in the specification and development of embedded real-time software solutions. This type of software is generally regarded as the most difficult software to get right. retiSoft expertise dates back to 1969 and has tracked the growth and maturing of this specialty software field. Visit our real-time software awareness page to learn more about the technical aspects of this fascinating field.

This page provides lists of resources that an embedded system developer might find valuable. retiSoft makes no claims regarding the completeness of these lists, but encourages anyone knowing of additional reputable firms or on-line resources to submit them via email for inclusion. Also, feel free to comment on your experiences with these companies, both good and bad.

INDEX

Embedded System Software Products List

• DOS in ROM Products
• Real-Time Operating Systems & Kernels

Embedded System Hardware Products List

• iX86/Pentium Single Board Computer Suppliers
• VGA LCD Drivers & Panels
• Sensors
• Wireless Communication Modules
• Other

Other Embedded System Developer Resources

• Magazines
• Other Lists of Real-Time References
• Embedded Linux References
• Others

Embedded System Software

Vendor	Contact	Products
DOS in ROM Products
Datalight, Inc. www.datalight.com	21520 30th Drive SE, M/S 110 Bothell, WA 98021 Phone: (425) 951-8086      (800) 221-6630 Fax: (425) 951-8095	"... develops and licenses professional quality system software, including operating systems and development tools for the x86 architecture. The company's primary products include: ROM-DOSTM 7.1 a compact, flexible DOS compatible operating system, and FlashFXTM 5.1, our Flash file system software that allows developers to make Onboard Flash memory into useable DOS floppy(s) or hard disk(s)."
General Software www.gensw.com	12737 Bel-Red Road, Suite 100 Bellevue, WA 98073 Phone: (800) 850-5755 Fax: (425) 454-5744	"... a leading supplier of embedded firmware, enabling specialized devices in telecommunications, data communications, and consumer electronics market segments through technology, licensing, and support models designed especially for embedded ODMs/OEMs.  Products include Embedded BIOS, a BIOS adaptation kit for embedded development with over 600 OEM-configurable options; and Firmbase, a 32-bit operating environment that runs firmware applications within the protective envelope of System Management Mode."
Real-Time Operating Systems & Kernels
Accelerated Technonogy Inc. www.atinucleus.com	333 W. El Camino Real Suite 250 Sunnyvale, CA 94087 Phone: (408) 738-2172 Fax: (408) 738-2893	"Nucleus PLUS was designed from the ground up for today’s embedded environments, it is portable, scalable, well-documented, and robust. It offers standard task control, inter-task communication, inter-task synchronization, memory management, timer management, and interrupt management. It is compact, fast, ROMable, and well-designed so that you can rely on it to efficiently control your system."
Berkeley Software Design, Inc. www.bsdi.com	5575 Tech Center Drive, #110 Colorado Springs, CO 80919 Phone: (719) 593-9445 Info: (800) 800-4BSD Fax: (719) 598-4238	"... has developed a rapidly growing business concentrated on delivering and supporting robust, stable BSD/OS-powered systems software environments for the Intel platform. e/BSD is of special value to developers of embedded network applications. The compact kernel, high performance and enhanced networking capabilities of BSD/OS, combined with affordable source code, make BSD/OS a very popular development and deployment platform for network applications."
Blunk Microsystems www.blunkmicro.com	6576 Leyland Park Drive San Jose, CA 95120-4558 Phone: (408) 323-1758 Fax: (408) 323-1757	"TargetOSTM is a multitasking, preemptive, re-entrant kernel. It is priority based, provides task synchronization and communication, deterministic, and responsive. It provides a flexible scheduler, interrupt service routine manager, command line debug monitor, and an integrated development environment. It is also site licensed and royalty free."
CMX Company www.cmx.com	680 Worcester Road Framingham, MA 01702 Phone: (508) 872-7675 Fax: (508) 620-6828	"CMX Real-Time Multi-Tasking Operating System products support most 8, 16, 32 and 64 bit embedded Microcontrollers, Microprocessors and DSPs. We also support more than 30 compiler vendors. "
EBS, Inc. www.etcbin.com	39 Court Street Groton, MA 01450 Phone: (866) 311-8463 Phone: (978) 448-9173 Fax: (978) 448-6376	"RTPX is a simple, portable, non-preemptive multi-tasking executive for use in embedded systems. RTPX contains a minimal API for managing tasks, resource semaphores and counting semaphores. RTPX was designed to provide the system services required by our TCP-IP stack and MS-DOS file system software packages but RTPX may be used for applications code. However, RTPX is not available as a standalone product but is included FREE with RTIP and RTFS."
Enea OSE Systems www.enea.com	P.O. Box 232 Nytorpsvägen 5B SE-183 23 Täby Sweden Phone: +46 (0)8 638 50 00 Fax: +46 (0)8 638 50 50	"... offers new generation real-time operating systems (RTOS) and development tools for embedded real-time systems. Unlike conventional RTOSes, OSE's new generation RTOS uses a direct message-passing model, and the OSE kernel incorporates many functions that were traditionally fulfilled by ancillary tools."
HIWARE Inc. www.hiware.com	8608 Barasinga Trail Austin, TX 78749 Phone: (512) 282-4435 Fax: (512) 282-4487	"Two different operating systems are currently available: (1) SOOM System/FPM : Fast Process Machine (2) SOOM System/REM : Rendez vous and Event Machine."
Linux Online www.linux.org	P.O. Box 1220 Laurel, MD 20725-1220 Phone: (301) 490-7245 Fax: (301) 490-7162	"Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers around the world. Linux is an independent POSIX implementation and includes true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand loading, proper memory management, TCP/IP networking, and other features consistent with Unix-type systems."
Lynx Real-Time Systems, Inc. www.lynx.com	2239 Samaritan Drive San Jose, CA 95124 Phone: (408) 879-3900 Fax: (408) 879-3920	"... develops and markets software products and services for use in a wide range of intelligent (microprocessor-based) products. The cornerstone of the Lynx product offering is an embeddable operating system called LynxOS."
Mentor Graphics (Microtec) www.mentor.com/embedded	Embedded SW Division HQ 880 Ridder Park Drive San Jose, CA 95131 Phone: (800) 950-5554 Fax: (408) 487-7001	"... a leading supplier of embedded software development tools, real-time operating systems (RTOSs) and services to more than 50,000 users worldwide. VRTX RTOS is among the industry’s most popular solutions for traditional embedded applications. The VRTXsa RTOS has been declared certifiable to FAA DO178b Level A standards, and is ideally suited for telecommunications infrastructure equipment and mission critical applications such as avionics."
Micrium, Inc. www.uCOS-II.com	949 Crestview Circle Weston, FL 33327 Phone: (954) 217-2036 Fax: (954) 217-2037	"µC/OS-II (Micro-Controller Operating System Version 2) is a portable, ROMable, scalable, preemptive real-time, multitasking kernel for microprocessors and microcontrollers. This Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) is described in the book "µC/OS-II, The RealTime Kernel" which also includes a diskette containing ALL the source code. µC/OS-II manages up to 63 user tasks and its performance is comparable with many commercially available kernels."
Micro Digital Inc. www.smxinfo.com/rjes.htm	12842 Valley View St. #208 Garden Grove, CA 92845 Phone: (800) 366-2491 Fax: (714) 891-2363	"smx® is a real-time multitasking kernel for use in embedded systems. It is specifically designed for demanding real-time applications. smx offers a full suite of kernel services, yet emphasizes simplicity and ease of use. smx focuses on the 80x86 and PowerPC processor families."
Microsoft® www.microsoft.com/ windowsce/embedded/ default.asp	One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 Phone: (425) 882-8080	"Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 is a 32-bit, Windows-compatible real-time operating system that fills the need for a small, scalable operating system that works in a broad selection of embedded and non-embedded products."
On Time Software www.on-time.com	39 Court Street Groton, MA 01450 Phone: (866) 311-8463 Phone: (978) 448-9173 Fax: (978) 448-6376	"... offers a complete range of real-time operating systems and development tools for 32-bit flat address protected-mode and 16-bit real-mode environments."
Precise Software Technologies Inc www.psti.com	301 Moodie Drive, Suite 308 Nepean, Ontario, K2H 9C4 Phone: (613) 596-2251 Fax: (613) 596-6713	"... develops and sells royalty-free embedded software components and software development tools for the embedded software market. Precise’s products include single-processor and multiprocessor real-time operating systems, embedded data communications and networking protocols, utilities, drivers, and software development tools."
QNX Software Systems Ltd. www.qnx.com	175 Terence Matthews Crescent Kanata, Ontario Canada, K2M 1W8 Phone: +1 613 591-0931 Fax: +1 613 591-3579	"... pioneered microkernel architecture, distributed processing for PCs, and built-in fault-tolerant networking. From PC/104 to CompactPCI, QNX supports more PC hardware than any other realtime OS. In fact, QNX works with hundreds of peripherals, right out of the box."
TASKING, Inc. (formerly Boston Systems Office) www.tasking.com	333 Elm Street Dedham, MA 02026-4530 Phone: (800) 458-8276 Fax: (781) 320-9212	"NucleusPlus is a royalty free, source code included, Real Time Operating System with extensive set of embedded I/O components available."
U S Software www.ussw.com	7175 NW Evergreen Parkway, Suite 100 Hillsboro, OR 97124 Phone: (503) 844-6614 Fax: (503) 844-6480	"The SuperTask! RTOS includes more than seventy powerful system calls to augment development of your multitasking applications. With standard serial I/O, SuperTask! is your comprehensive RTOS solution – source code included."
Vita Nuova Inc. www.vitanuova.com	240 Park St. Montclair, NJ 07042 Phone: (866) TEL-VITA Fax: (866) FAX-VITA	Vita Nuova is an operating systems company specializing in technologies for distributed applications development on network devices. Their major product, Inferno, is an economical operating system for use in small devices, running in native mode on X86, StrongARM, PowerPC, and MIPS platforms, with a development environment that runs under many different operating systems.
Wind River Systems www.wrs.com	500 Wind River Way Alameda, CA 94501 Phone: (800) 545-WIND Fax: (510) 749-2010	"... provides quality software and services for creating real-time embedded applications quickly, economically, and with minimal risk. VxWorks is the industry-standard scalable real-time operating system, featuring the multitasking wind® kernel, POSIX real-time extensions, intertask communications, full networking functionality, file system support, and C++ support."

Embedded System Hardware

Vendor	Contact	Products
iX86/Pentium Single Board Computer Suppliers
Adastra Systems Corporation www.adastra.com	3988 Trust Way Hayward, CA. 94545 Phone: (510) 732-6900 Fax: (510) 732-7655	"... designs and manufactures sophisticated embedded systems for OEM and end users, focusing on highly integrated, PC/AT 486 & Pentium single board computers, PC/104 peripherals, industrial PCI systems, and embedded multimedia products."
Ampro Computers, Inc. www.ampro.com	4757 Hellyer Avenue San Jose, CA 95138 Phone: (800) 966-5200 Fax: (408) 360-0222	"... the leading supplier of modular embedded PCs. The company originated the PC/104 and PC/104-Plus module standards as well as the 5.25-inch-disk-drive Little Board form-factor for non-backplane single board computers."
Arcom Control Systems Inc www.arcom.co.uk	13510 South Oak Street Kansas City, MO 64145 Phone: (888) 941-2224 Fax: (816) 941-7807	"Designing, manufacturing and supplying industrial & embedded computer products for equipment & process control, data-collection, communications & automation applications"
Bagotronix www.bagotronix.com	1019 Crossing Brook Way Tallahassee, FL 32311 Phone: (850) 942-7905 Fax: (850) 942-7905	"... offer single board computers (80C188) in PC/104 and proprietary form factors, and design services for semi-custom and full-custom PC/104, ISA, and proprietary form factors."
Emac, Inc. www.emacinc.com	11 EMAC Way Carbondale, IL 62901 Phone: (618) 529-4525 Fax: (618) 457-0110	"... offers a comprehensive line of products and services for the embedded systems market. Since 1984 we have provided customers world-wide, with Single Board Computers, I/O peripherals, Microprocessor Training Systems, and custom engineering and manufacturing services."
EMJ America Inc. www.emj.com	1434 Farrington Road Apex, NC 27502 Phone: (800) 548-2319 Fax: (919) 363-4425	"... a distributor of embedded systems, UNIX and Windows NT networking and connectivity, firewall and security, and Internet-related products."
JK Microsystems, Inc. www.jkmicro.com	1902 East 8th Street Davis, CA 95616 Phone: (530) 297-6073 Fax: (530) 297-6074	"... is the industry leader in embedded DOS controllers. Our Flashlite single board computers offer the speed of DOS application programming at a cost comparable to 8051 or 6805 family microprocessors."
Megatel Computer Corp. www.megatel.ca	125 Wendell Avenue Weston, Ontario M9N 3K9 Canada Phone: (888) smallpc	"... a leading manufacturer of embedded PC's for the OEM. Megatel supports PCI, PC/104 and ISA Bus standards."
Micro Computer Specialists Inc. www.mcsi1.com	2598g Fortune Way Vista, CA 92083 Phone: (800) 542-9662 Fax: (760) 598-2450	"Product emphasis includes CPU boards from 80386SX through 586 Pentium / PCI with and without on-board disk emulation; disk emulators from 1MB through 64MB and embedded chassis from 3-slots through 14-slots."
Micro/sys www.embeddedsys.com	3730 Park Place Glendale, CA 91020 Phone: (818) 244-4600 Fax: (818) 244-4246	"... offers a wide range of products, from 8051 microcontroller boards to Pentium-based embeddable PCs and turnkey industrial computers."
Midwest Micro-Tek www.midwestmicro-tek.com	2308 E. 6th St. Brookings, SD 57006 Phone: (605) 697-8521 Fax: (605) 692-5112	"... mission is to develop and deliver cost-effective, high-quality solutions to a wide variety of embedded control applications. MMT has designed their standard products around several families of 8 and 16 bit microcontrollers including: 8051, 80251, 80188, 68HC11, Z180, PIC17C44 and 80196KC."
MVS www.star.net/people/~mvs	Box 850 Merrimack,NH 03054 Phone: (508) 792-9507	Provider of several types of X86 Single Board Computers
OCTAGON SYSTEMS CORPORATION www.octagonsystems.com	6510 W. 91st Avenue Westminster, CO 80030 Phone: (303) 430-1500 Fax: (303) 426-8126	"... designs and manufactures an extensive line of industrial PC products that are embedded into a broad range of applications including communications, transportation, industrial control, data acquisition, and medical instrumentation."
Real Time Devices USA, Inc. www.rtdusa.com	200 Innovation Blvd. PO Box 906 State College, PA 16804-0906 Phone: (814) 234-8087 Fax: (814) 234-5218	"RTD USA designs and manufactures PC compatible embedded CPU and DAS board-level products, and HighRel ISA, PCI, PC/104 and PC/104-Plus modules and systems."
R.L.C. Enterprises, Inc. www.rlc.com	5425 El Camino Real Atascadero, CA 93422 Phone: (805) 466-9717 Fax: (805) 466-9736	"... has been designing and manufacturing Embedded Single Board Computers, Controllers and I/O products for the embedded market since 1980. We are a leading manufacturer of 386EX and 188EB Embedded Single Board Computers, Controllers iSBX Modules and Remote & Local Controller Network I/O Modules."
Technologic Systems www.t-systems.com	16610 East Laser, Suite 10 Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 Phone: (602) 837-5200 Fax: (602) 837-5300	Provides a family of i386EX Embedded Personal Computer (EPC) of various configurations.
TempusTech, Inc. www.tempustech.com	295 Airport Road Naples, FL 34101-3522 Phone: (941) 643-2424 Fax: (941) 643-4981	"A leading edge manufacturer of superior embedded computer products, offering high quality, high durability, low power, industrial/application computers, and components."
TERN, Inc. www.tern.com	1724 Picasso Ave. Suite A Davis, CA 95616 Phone: (530) 758-0180 Fax: (530) 758-0181	"V25, AM188ES, & i386EX-based controllers that are designed for embedded systems that require high performance, PC-compatibility, compactness, low power consumption, and high reliability at a low cost."
WinSystems, Inc. www.winsystems.com	715 Stadium Drive Arlington, TX 76011 Phone: (817) 274-7553 Fax: (817) 548-1358	"... specialized in the design and manufacturing of embedded computers for use in industrial applications for over 15 years. WinSystems is recognized as a leading supplier of reliable STD Bus and PC/104 Bus products at a competitive price."
Z-World www.zworld.com	2900 Spafford Street Davis, CA 95616 Phone: (530) 757-3737 Fax: (530) 753-5141	"... is the leading producer of embedded controllers and single board computers that are used for embedded systems, machine control, and OEM industrial applications. Z-World's controllers are small, powerful computers that directly interface with a vast array of input sensors and output devices."
VGA LCD Drivers & Panels
Earth Computer Technologies, Inc. www.flat-panel.com	1110 Calle Cordillera San Clemente, CA 92673 Phone: (949) 361-2333 Fax: (949) 361-2121	"... committed to enabling LCD technology with the most cost effective solutions available often enabling new applications before the LCD market."
Sensors
ADAC Corporation www.adac.com	70 Tower Office Park Woburn, MA 01801 Phone: (781) 935-3200 Fax: (781) 938-6553	"... one of the leading manufacturers of Data Acquisition hardware and software products (A/D, D/A, digital I/O, signal conditioning [strain gage, thermocouples, etc.] data acquisition boards or Industrial PCs) for PCs and VME systems."
Bueno Systems, Inc. www.olympus.net/ biz/buenosys	Phone: (360) 385-4840	"... building the most rugged industrial linescan cameras, lighting, I/O and software in the industry."
Celesco Transducer Products, Inc. www.celesco.com	7800 Deering Avenue Canoga Park, CA 90309-7964 Phone: (800) 423-5483 Fax: (818) 340-1175	"... cable extension transducers, rotational transducers, inclinometers, and motion conversion. Easy and reliable position measurement."
Senix Corp. www.senix.com	52 Maple St. Bristol, VT 05443 Phone: (800) 677-3649 Fax: (802) 453-2549	"... design, manufacture, sell and support a widerange of ultrasonic sensor products used to measure distance to a remote object through the air without touching it. They are used in a broad array of industrial and scientific applications, including machine and motion controls, liquid level measurement, people sensing and proximity sensing."
U.S. Digital Corporation www.usdigital.com	11100 NE 34th Circle Vancouver, WA 98683 Phone: (360) 260-2468 or (800) 736-0194 Fax: (360) 260-2469	"... specializes in offering practical motion control components such as absolute optical encoders, incremental optical encoders, inclinometers, tilt sensors, standard & custom encoder disks, displays, quadrature decoder IC's, zero-speed switches, PC-interfaces, standard & custom software, and many other motion control products."
Wireless Communication Modules
Abacom www.abacom-tech.com	Phone: (416) 236-3858 Fax: (416) 236-8866	"... worldwide suppliers of radio data modules. Focused on ease-of-integration, leading edge technology, and cost sensitivity without compromise, the RF modules provide off-the-shelf solutions for the integration of wireless communications into digital designs."
Radiometrix www.radiometrix.co.uk	USA: Lemos International Co.Inc. 65 Southbridge Street Auburn, MA 01501 Phone: (508) 798-5004 Fax: (508) 798-4782	"Radiometrix specialises in the design and manufacture of low power radio modules for rapid implementation of high-reliability, cable-free data links. Radiometrix is the industry's leading developer of off the-shelf, licence-exempt minature radio modules."
Other
Integrity Instruments www.rs-485.com	P.O. Box 451 Pine River, MN 56474 Phone: (800) 450-2001 Fax: (218) 587-3414	RS232 to RS422/485 Converters (good information on wiring an RS-485 network).
Jameco Electronics www.jameco.com	1355 Shoreway Road Belmont, CA 94002-4100 Phone: (650) 592-8097 Fax: (650) 592-2503	"General product areas include integrated circuits, discrete and passive components, connectors, power components, prototyping supplies, hobby kits, tools, test equipment, and computer products."
R.E.Smith www.rs485.com	4311 Tylersville Road Hamilton, OH 45011 Phone: (513) 874-4796 Fax: (513) 874-1236	RS232 to RS422/485 Converters (nice quick reference for serial communications).
Saelig Company, LLC www.saelig.com	1193 Moseley Road Victor, NY 14564 Phone: (716) 425-3753 Fax: (716) 425-3835	RS232 to RS422/485 Converters (from KK Systems Ltd.)

Embedded System Resources

• Magazines:
  • Embedded Systems Programming

  • Circuit Cellar Ink^®

  • EDN

  • Real-Time Magazine

  • Dr. Dobb's Journal

  • C/C++ Users Journal^TM

  • Windows CE Tech Journal

  • Embedded Linux Journal

• Other Lists of Real-Time References:
  • IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Real-Time Systems -- Real-Time Research Repository: (lists of links in a number of categories related to real-time systems)

  • Real-Time Encyclopedia: (a collection of real-time system developer references, sponsored by Real-Time Magazine)

  • Real-Time Systems Index: (an index of real-time resource links sorted by category)

  • MotionNet.com - Engineering Resources Online: Browse the categorized directory of engineering products and companies. Includes a search engine for a more detailed search of companies listed on the site. Designed by engineers for engineers to be the most useful engineering site on the Internet. (an industry association that provides awareness and creates excitement about the present capabilities and future directions of wireless local area networks)

  • Planet Analog: The EDTN network has launched a new community, Planet Analog, an on-line resource dedicated solely to analog and mixed-signal design professionals. This site contains top news and feature stories along with product and resource links, a column by analog and mixed-signal columnist Steve Ohr and interactive features such as bulletin boards, user groups, career mentor boards, and seminar and conference schedules.

  
• Embedded Linux References:
  
  • Linux Online: This site provides a comprehensive resource for potential and current Linux Operating System users. This is the premier site for Linux and is the most referenced Linux site, but in print and on-line.
    

    

  • Embedded Linux Consortium: The Embedded Linux Consortium (ELC) is a nonprofit, vendor-neutral trade association whose goal is the promotion of Linux in the embedded, applied, and appliance computing domains.
    

  • Embedded Linux StarGate: This site features:
    • FAQs and documents on how to build your own embedded Linux OS.

    • Embedded Linux software, including embedded Linux distributions, Linux as a real-time system, small windowing environments, utilities, network software, and Tiny - small Linux distributions.

    • List of hardware providers embedding and giving support for Linux.

  • Linux Devices, the Embedded Linux Portal: This site features news, articles, polls, forums, etc. exclusively focused on using Linux in embedded applications.

  • All Linux Devices: This site offers a daily source for embedded Linux information, plus links to other popular Linux sites.

  • Silicon Penguin: This site provides links to relevant and current information on the companies, hardware, software, and projects operating and influencing the embedded Linux community.

• Others:
  • Embedded Software Association: (a membership organization existing to enhance communications and information exchanges between the users and creators of embedded software products)

  • The PC/104 Consortium: (to establish PC/104 as a broadly supported industry standard architecture for embedded-PC applications; provides PC/104 standards on-line)

  • PCI Special Interest Group: (an unincorporated association of members of the microcomputer industry set up for the purpose of monitoring and enhancing the development of the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) architecture)

  • PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG^®): (a consortium of over 350 companies who collaboratively develop specifications that adapt PCI technology for use in industrial and telecommunications computing applications)

  • Universal Serial Bus (USB) Home Page: (over 450 leading manufacturers of PCs, peripherals and software have joined forces to create a new way to connect PCs to a fast-growing list of new peripherals)

  • ISA Directory of Instrumentation: (for Information on Sensors, Transmitters, Signal Conditioners, Analytical & Environmental Equipment, Operator Interfaces, Recorders, Display Equipment, Controllers, PLCs, PCs, Input/Output Products, Control Software & Equipment, Final Control Elements, Integrated Control Systems & Equipment, Calibration, Test & Measurement, Maintenance, Support System Components & Enclosures, and Technical Services for the Process and Manufacturing Industries)

  • Wireless LAN Alliance (WLANA): (an industry association that provides awareness and creates excitement about the present capabilities and future directions of wireless local area networks)

  • The VMEbus International Trade Association (VITA): (an incorporated, non-profit organization of vendors and users having common market interests. Founded in 1984, VITA was formed to champion open system technologies, as opposed to closed, proprietary system architectures; site includes a number of on-line open-architecture standards for which the VITA Standards Organization is responsible)