Wind River Education Services

VxWorks 6.x and Workbench Essentials

Buy Now

Course Description

Course Results

Products Supported

Who Should Attend

Course Format

Buy Now

Course Details Summary

  • Duration: 4 Days
  • Course Information: View
  • Format: Lectures and Labs
  • Type: Instructor-led
  • Price/Schedule: View

The VxWorks 6.x and Workbench Essentials training course provides engineers with a fast, cost-effective way to acquire the skills necessary to develop real-time applications with VxWorks and Wind River Workbench.

After this course, participants will be able to:

  • Design and develop real-time applications in kernel and user modes.
  • Debug, build, and test real-time applications in a target-host development environment with Workbench and VxWorks.
  • VxWorks 6.9 and earlier
  • Wind River Workbench 3.3
  • Anyone who will receive Workbench and VxWorks 6.x within 60 days
  • Developers who work with Workbench and VxWorks
  • New project members on teams using Wind River products
  • Senior engineers who want to evaluate VxWorks technology

Day 1

Getting Started

  • Product overview
  • Workbench 3.x features
  • VxWorks 6.x features

VxWorks Targets and Connections

  • Hardware target configuration
  • Workbench tools architecture
  • Configuring and connecting the target server
  • Wind River VxWorks Simulator – a high-level simulator
  • LAB: Getting started (hardware, Simics, or VxWorks Simulator target)

Managing Projects in Wind River Workbench

  • VxWorks image projects
  • Kernel configuration
  • ROMFS
  • Import and export
  • Building projects
  • LAB: Project management

VxWorks Shells

  • Command-line history and editing
  • Host shell configuration
  • Shell interpreters
  • Spawning VxWorks tasks and I/O
  • Kernel shell comparison
  • LAB: Host shell

Day 2

Debugging in Wind River Workbench

  • Debugger overview
  • Setting breakpoints
  • Task mode vs. system mode debugging
  • Downloading code
  • Saving debug sessions
  • Attaching to running tasks
  • LAB: Debugger

Real-Time Multitasking

  • Task states in VxWorks
  • Context switching
  • Spawning new tasks
  • Task control routines
  • Alternative POSIX support
  • System tasks
  • LAB: Multitasking

VxWorks Events

  • Task event register
  • Event handling in VxWorks
  • Other eventLib routines
  • Usage caveats
  • LAB: Events

Day 3

Semaphores

  • Synchronization issues
  • Binary and counting semaphores
  • Mutex semaphores
  • Deletion and inversion safe mutex semaphores
  • Other preemption locks for tasks and ISRs
  • LAB: Semaphores

Inter-task Communication

  • Shared memory and data structures
  • Message queues
  • Creating, sending, and receiving messages
  • Message queue events
  • Pipes in VxWorks
  • LAB: Inter-task communication

Memory

  • Memory maps with and without processes
  • Memory pools – kernel heap and WDB
  • Memory allocation
  • Additional memory management routines
  • Partition manager
  • LAB: Memory

Real-Time Processes (RTPs)

  • Use of MMU
  • Memory allocation and tasks
  • RTP terminology
  • VxWorks component support for RTPs
  • RTP execution and life cycle
  • Debugging RTPs
  • Design considerations
  • LAB: Real-time processes

Day 4

Exceptions, Interrupts, and Timers

  • Exception handling and signals
  • Installing signals to handle exceptions
  • Interrupt service routine basics
  • Timing and the system clock
  • Watchdog timers
  • Polling
  • The auxiliary clock
  • LAB: Exceptions, interrupts, and timers

Error Detection and Reporting

  • Error reporting framework
  • Handling fatal errors
  • Configuring ED&R
  • Persistent memory manager
  • Error records
  • LAB: Error detection and reporting

System Viewer

  • Configuring System Viewer
  • VxWorks component support
  • Logging level selection
  • Searching for events in the log
  • Additional analysis views
  • LAB: System Viewer

Please see course datasheet for further details

Prerequisite Courses

  • Real-Time Programming for Embedded Systems
  • Prerequisite Skills

    • One year of C programming
    • Basic understanding of operating systems and debugging techniques
    • This four-day expert-led course consists of lectures and lab sessions.
    • Attendees use VxWorks 6.9 and Wind River Workbench 3.3 to gain experience with the topics presented.
    • Participants examine and exercise simulated network topologies in hands-on labs.
    • Participants receive individual guidance from an expert engineer who has extensive experience with Wind River technologies.