#EmbeddedSystems #RTOS #VxWorks #LegacyCode Did you know? VxWorks 5.4.2 (and earlier) used the wind kernel – a single flat address space, ring 0 only. Every task could see and corrupt every other task’s memory. But you could hot-patch functions live in the shell with just:
Here’s a social/tech post about , written as if for a retro embedded engineering community (e.g., LinkedIn, Reddit, or a blog). Pick the tone you need. Option 1: Nostalgic / “War Story” (Reddit or Blog) Title: VxWorks 5.4.2 – where a stray pointer meant rebooting a $50k machine
Who else here survived the 5.x era? Bonus points if you used and thought it was magic. vxworks 5.4.2
No MMU protection. No POSIX threads. But deterministic scheduling you could bet a Mars rover on.
Still running in some places where “if it ain’t broke, don’t update the BSP.” #EmbeddedSystems #RTOS #VxWorks #LegacyCode Did you know
If you ever debugged a priority inversion with wind in Tornado 2.2 – you have my respect.
-> ld < myPatch.o -> symFindByName "oldFunc", &pOld -> symFindByName "newFunc", &pNew -> pOld = pNew No reboot. No downtime. That’s power – and danger. But you could hot-patch functions live in the
Just fired up an old project image from the early 2000s – , Tornado 2.2, and a Pentium-based SBC.
#VxWorks #Embedded #RealTimeKernel
#vxworks #realtimesystems #embedded #retrocomputing 🕰️ Throwback: VxWorks 5.4.2 (circa early 2000s)
#EmbeddedSystems #RTOS #VxWorks #LegacyCode Did you know? VxWorks 5.4.2 (and earlier) used the wind kernel – a single flat address space, ring 0 only. Every task could see and corrupt every other task’s memory. But you could hot-patch functions live in the shell with just:
Here’s a social/tech post about , written as if for a retro embedded engineering community (e.g., LinkedIn, Reddit, or a blog). Pick the tone you need. Option 1: Nostalgic / “War Story” (Reddit or Blog) Title: VxWorks 5.4.2 – where a stray pointer meant rebooting a $50k machine
Who else here survived the 5.x era? Bonus points if you used and thought it was magic.
No MMU protection. No POSIX threads. But deterministic scheduling you could bet a Mars rover on.
Still running in some places where “if it ain’t broke, don’t update the BSP.”
If you ever debugged a priority inversion with wind in Tornado 2.2 – you have my respect.
-> ld < myPatch.o -> symFindByName "oldFunc", &pOld -> symFindByName "newFunc", &pNew -> pOld = pNew No reboot. No downtime. That’s power – and danger.
Just fired up an old project image from the early 2000s – , Tornado 2.2, and a Pentium-based SBC.
#VxWorks #Embedded #RealTimeKernel
#vxworks #realtimesystems #embedded #retrocomputing 🕰️ Throwback: VxWorks 5.4.2 (circa early 2000s)