Software Lifecycle
We develop software primarily for the ecosystem surrounding our LEON and NOEL processor families and GRLIB IPs. Each software product serves different purposes and usage scenarios, which dictate specific requirements for its life cycle.
Target Software
- Flight Software
- Operating System Support
- Demonstration and Example Software
Host Software Tools
- Tools for debugging, simulation, and analysis
- Compiler Toolchains: used to generate target software
General about the software life cycle
The life cycle of our products is influenced by how the development is conducted—whether entirely in-house or based on open-source/commercial software with their own lifecycle procedures. Additionally, the life cycle of the host PC platform can also be of impact.
Our software life cycle varies between products and affects even components within the same product. The following sections briefly describe our software life cycle address the above complexity.
We use the following states to describe and categorize a SW product:
- Development
- Releases are labeled as alpha, beta, or release candidate (RC).
- Feature requests are possible.
- Limited support is provided.
- Production
- Products based on 3rd party / open-source software follow a stable release.
- Feature requests are possible.
- Full support and regular updates are provided.
- Legacy
- Support is limited to bug fixes.
- Software updates are based on user demand.
- Users are encouraged to migrate to newer products in the production state.
- End of Life (EOL)
In addition to the above it is important to notice that the life cycle of a software product may be limited for a specific target HW, and the device support may vary. New devices are typically supported only by the newer software products, or the software products able to leverage the new performance of a new device.
The user base and their demand may influence final schedules.
For specific device support details, please refer to the Software Overview pages
Current life cycle projection
Our development tools typically remain in the Production state for at least 5 years before transitioning to Legacy. The lifecycle is influenced by Linux/Windows platform support.
TSIM1
End of life
Legacy
Legacy
TSIM2 for ERC32
Production
TSIM3
Production
GRSIM
End of life
EOL in 2021 (migrate to TSIM3)
GRMON2
End of life
Superseded by GRMON3 in 2019
GRMON3
Production
Projected Legacy 2024
The Operating System (OS) support provided by us are mainly processor architectural port, BSP and toolchain. Apart from BCC, which is a stand-alone run-time, the OS support adheres to the life cycle of the distributing organization. The toolchains life cycles are described in the next paragraph. The LEON Linux distribution are tracking mainline long term stable (LTS) releases, for details see Linux page. The VxWorks for LEON distribution follows Wind River's life cycle also aiming to provide long-term support.
Product
Current status
Schedule, comments
BCC1
End of life
EOL in 2022
BCC2
Production
Linux 4.9
Development
Expected EOL 2023
Linux 5.10
Development
Tracks upstream LTS kernel versions. 5.10 expected EOL in 2026.
RTEMS 4.8 (RCC-1.1)
End of life
RTEMS 4.10 (RCC-1.2)
Legacy
Legacy since October 2020
RTEMS 5 (RCC-1.3)
Production
RTEMS-5.3, RTEMS-5 officially released in August 2020
VxWorks 6.7
End of life
Wind River ended their support Jan 1, 2019
VxWorks 6.9
Legacy
Follows Wind River's life cycle (transition to Legacy 2020)
VxWorks 7
Production
Follows Wind River's life cycle
Zephyr
Development
3.5 support will be replaced by Zephyr-3.x LTS in 2024
Production and Legacy compiler toolchains, based on GCC and LLVM, follows the individual community life cycle by providing updates for our toolchains when updates are available in up-streams stable branches. When communities end of life their software, we limit updates only to include the backend and other fixes are evaluated on per case basis, this is to prolong the life of the toolchain and indicated by Legacy status.
Product
Current status
Schedule, comments
GCC-3.4
(used by BCC1)
End of life
(BCC1 -mflat users migrate to BCC2)
GCC-4.1
(used by VxWorks 6.7)
End of life
EOL upstream,
Wind River EOL since Jan 1, 2019
GCC-4.4
(used by BCC1, RTEMS-4.10)
Legacy
EOL upstream
GCC-4.9
(used by VxWorks 6.9)
Legacy
EOL upstream, supported by Wind River
GCC-7.5
(used by BCC-2.1, VxWorks 7 SR0620)
Production
EOL upstream
GCC-10.2
(used by BCC-2.2, RCC-1.3, VxWorks 7 SR0650, Linux 4.9)
Production
EOL upstream 2023
GCC-13.2
(used by BCC-2.3, Linux 5.10)
Production
EOL upstreams expected 2025
LLVM-7 and earlier (used by BCC-2.0)
End of Life
Superseded by LLVM-8
LLVM-8 (used by VxWorks 7, RCC-1.3, BCC-2.1/2.2)
Production
The boot loaders provided are listed below:
Product
Current status
Schedule, comments
GR712RC Boot SW
Legacy
Superseded by GRBOOT.
GRBOOT
Production
GRBOOT-STANDBY
Production
MKPROM2
Production
*) See the disclaimer section below.
Disclaimer
The software life cycle described on this page reflects our current projection, but it may be updated in the future. As a result, software in Development status may never reach production status, and the Legacy period of software could be shortened against what is expressed above.
The user base, demand, and migration paths may affect the final schedules, both extending and shortening them.
For more information about the life cycle please contact support@gaisler.com.
Need support or want to talk to an expert?
Get in touch with us by submitting the form or contacting us at sales@gaisler.com
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