Xenomai – real-time development framework for Linux

Xenomai is a real-time development framework for Linux. It lets demanding applications run time-critical tasks with predictable latency, either alongside Linux in a dual-kernel configuration or natively over Linux with real-time preemption support.

Xenomai introduces hard real-time capabilities to the Linux Kernel. It follows the so-called dual kernel approach, the Linux kernel is only modified to the extent that it works seamlessly with the Xenomai microkernel. This dual kernel design introduces a small real-time infrastructure into the Linux kernel, which immediately handles time-critical, out-of-band activities independently from the ongoing general purpose kernel work.

The general purpose Linux kernel and the real-time core operate almost asynchronously, both serving their own set of tasks, always giving the latter precedence over the former. Application threads co-managed by this infrastructure still benefit from the common kernel services such as virtual memory management; they can leverage the rich GPOS feature set Linux provides such as networking, data storage or GUIs too. When debugging a real-time issue, the functional isolation of the real-time infrastructure from the rest of the kernel code restricts bug hunting to the scope of the small autonomous core, excluding most interactions with the very large Linux kernel base.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Real-time framework for Linux-based systems.
• Supports dual-kernel operation through the Cobalt real-time core.
• Can run natively over Linux using the Mercury core.
• Xenomai 4 introduces the EVL core and Dovetail interface.
• Useful for embedded systems, robotics, industrial control, automation, and other latency-sensitive workloads.
• Provides real-time APIs and compatibility layers for traditional RTOS interfaces.
• Includes user-space libraries, utilities, tests, and kernel-space components.
• Supports selected hardware architectures and maintained Linux kernel branches.

Website: xenomai.org
Support:
Developer: Xenomai Project
License: GNU General Public License v2.0, GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1, MIT License

Xenomai is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

This program was suggested by a visitor who completed the software form.

Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category. The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form.