ELinOS on PikeOS

ELinOS can run as guest operating system in a partition on top of PikeOS, SYSGO's real-time separation-kernel hypervisor. A partition is a separated environment in which different Application Programming Interfaces (API), runtime environments or guest OSs can reside. Partitions (and software within the partitions) are strictly separated per default. Since guest OSs are executed inside partitions, it is possible to run uncertified (unsecure) guest OSs in parallel with certified (critical) applications in other partitions.

An application suite provides the tools and materials needed to develop software using the respective API, runtime environment or guest operating system within a PikeOS partition. The resulting ELinOS partition image can be integrated into PikeOS and executed, analyzed and debugged.

ELinOS can run as a guest operating system partition on top of PikeOS. This setup enables efficient mixed-criticality systems: ELinOS executes alongside certified partitions such as ARINC 653 or POSIX, without impacting their certification context.

PikeOS supports two modes of virtualization:

• Para-Virtualization: Requires kernel modifications (mainly around memory management) but runs on all PikeOS-supported architectures with no hardware virtualization support
• Hardware Virtualization: Requires no guest OS modification, but requires underlying hardware support and can be slightly more complex to configure—however, it delivers near-native performance for system calls, exceptions, and interrupts

Integration Notes

• For para-virtualized ELinOS, patch the Linux kernel accordingly
• For hardware-virtualized ELinOS, minor tweaks—typically to the device tree—enable compatibility
• No modifications are required beyond that, enabling any compatible Linux distribution to run as a guest, provided it targets a supported architecture

Board Support Packages (BSPs)

To run directly on hardware, ELinOS uses its own BSPs to interface with the hardware (bootloader, kernel config, drivers, device tree, etc.). However, when ELinOS runs as a guest OS on top of PikeOS, the integrated “PikeOS BSP” is used for system configuration. Like this, ELinOS knows it is running as guest OS. 

Important

• PikeOS handles the hardware directly, via its own Board Support Packages
• ELinOS, as a guest OS, sees a virtualized hardware environment defined by PikeOS (memory ranges, devices, virtual IRQs, etc.)
• The only ELinOS-specific configuration needed is kernel adaptation (e.g., for para-virtualization) and possibly device tree tweaking