March 24, 2009 – KUKA Real-Time Products announced software packages that combine Microsoft Windows with a real-time operating system, RTOS, on a single or multi-core processor. These fully-certified software packages allow Windows to run with the industry’s leading RTOSes including VxWorks, Windows CE, QNX and On Time RTOS-32. These packages extend the KUKA virtualization product line which includes VxWin that combines Windows with VxWorks and CeWin that combines Windows with WinCE (Windows CE). The ability to combine a general purpose operating system with a real-time operating system maximizes the integration of industrial and commercial systems with front office operations which today predominately feature Microsoft Windows.
This facilitates the fast exchange of useful information and data from instruments and machines used in manufacturing. In other applications, adding an RTOS to Windows in industrial and commercial systems provides deterministic execution of critical functions. The use of Windows also provides a positive user experience because of the familiarity with the Windows environment. This in turn, optimizes productivity. The advantage for equipment and system manufacturers is the ability to reduce product cost and eliminate additional hardware through the use of a single processor.
Since KUKA’s software packages run on either single-core or multi-core processors, system designers can easily migrate existing products to new hardware featuring multi-core processors to take advantage of faster processing speeds. This saves the manufacturer both time and money. The significant advantage of the KUKA virtualization solution is the ability to combine the OSes without affecting performance. All the characteristics and features of each OS are operational as KUKA does not modify either the Windows or the RTOS. Importantly, the real-time operation system is not affected by any interruptions in Windows that might occur.
In contrast to other virtualization solutions, the KUKA solutions run on any manufacturer’s processor featuring the x86 architecture. KUKA pioneered the combining of OSes on a single processor in the mid-nineteen nineties with the introduction of VxWin that combined Wind River VxWorks with Windows 95. KUKA continues to focus on solutions incorporating well respected, real-time operating systems (RTOSes), rather than proprietary ones because there are entire communities using and advancing these operating systems.
