Linux has become a widely adopted platform, and many teams now rely on it to prototype new products. However, when moving from a prototype to a production-ready system, engineers often face concerns related to functional safety, real-time performance, cost, and long-term support.

This post explores the challenges that arise when transitioning Linux from the prototype phase to mass production. It also explains how working with eSOL can help you address these issues effectively.

Table of Contents

1. Why Linux is Chosen for Prototype Development: Flexibility and Speed
   
   
2. Challenges That Hinder Commercialization: Functional Safety, Real-Time Performance, and Support
   
   
3. How eSOL Platforms Address These Challenges
   
   
4. Conclusion
   
   

Why Linux is Chosen for Prototype Development: Flexibility and Speed

In today’s development environment, engineers face growing pressure to deliver not only higher functionality and performance, but also have to cope with shorter development cycles. Development methods are shifting from the traditional waterfall model to agile approaches, where rapid prototyping and continuous improvement are expected. Against this backdrop, Linux is gaining attention for its zero-licensing cost and the ability to leverage a wide range of open-source software (OSS).

The ability to enable rapid prototyping is another major advantage. In addition, as OSS continues to evolve, it has become easier to use cutting-edge technologies such as image processing and AI inference. Tools like Yocto and Buildroot have also simplified the adoption of embedded Linux.

Linux’s strengths lie in its flexibility to build custom environments optimized for each product, and in the rapid innovation enabled by its active OSS community. According to the 2024 State of Open Source Report, the most common reason for adopting OSS was “no license fees / overall cost reduction.” This was followed by reasons such as “features that accelerate development,” “stability from long-term community support,” “access to the latest technologies,” and “freedom from vendor lock-in.”

For these reasons, Linux has become one of the most suitable choices to meet today’s development needs. It is increasingly being adopted as an effective platform for rapid development and technology validation, especially during the prototyping phase.

Challenges That Hinder Commercialization: Functional Safety, Real-Time Performance, and Support

When trying to apply Linux to mass-production products, several challenges become apparent. Even though Linux works effectively during the prototyping phase, many development teams encounter the following issues as they move toward commercialization:

• Difficulty in achieving functional safety compliance 

• Stability and real-time performance under heavy loads 

• Challenges in reusing prototype Linux applications for production 

• Misconceptions about costs, and  

• Concerns over support structures.

Linux is a highly capable operating system, but it faces several obstacles when it comes to functional safety compliance. For example, Linux often lacks clearly defined development processes and traceability, making system-wide verification difficult. It also lacks determinism, and obtaining third-party certification can be challenging. In addition, under heavy loads, maintaining real-time performance and system stability becomes difficult, which is another major challenge.

To meet final safety and performance requirements, applications prototyped on Linux are often transitioned to a real-time OS or a functional-safety-certified OS. However, since mass production projects usually operate under tight schedules, such transition work can pose risks to both delivery timelines and product quality.

Although Linux itself is free, commercial development often involves various costs such as licensing for third-party SDK and tools, expensive technical support from established experts, and potential maintenance costs from a Linux distribution vendor.

It is also important to carefully assess the potential legal risks related to OSS usage and to confirm whether the necessary support structure is in place. This often includes reviewing CI and IT processes, preparing internal guidelines and training for technical teams, and ensuring that an OSS governance framework is available to evaluate third-party components and their licenses.

How eSOL Platforms Address These Challenges

1. Addressing Functional Safety

To address challenges related to functional safety, eSOL has established a comprehensive “full-stack engineering” support framework that helps customers from multiple angles, including real-time operating systems, middleware, consulting, engineering services, and development tools.

Real-time operating systems (RTOS) excel in control applications that require low and predictable latency and high reliability, making them ideal for automative safety systems and emergency shutdown functions in industrial machinery.

In contrast, general purpose operating systems such as Linux offer strengths in high-quality graphics, diverse communication functions, and flexible user interfaces. Recently, hybrid architectures that combine these two approaches have become increasingly common, enabling both safety and a comfortable user experience.

As such, selecting the most suitable OS for each application is a critical factor in achieving functional safety compliance.

2. Ensuring Stability and Real-time Performance Under Heavy Loads

eSOL’s eMCOS next-generation RTOS solution is based on a multikernel architecture to ensure stable real-time performance on multicore platforms even under heavy loads. Each CPU core runs on a lightweight microkernel with only the minimum required functions, while advanced services such as POSIX compliance, memory management, and device control are implemented separately as server threads.

This approach distributes processing across multiple cores, significantly improving overall parallelism and real-time performance of the operating system. In addition, through message passing, eMCOS enables inter-core communication without using shared-memory, ensuring high parallel efficiency.

In conventional operating systems, multiple cores share a single kernel, which can lead to conflicts between cores under heavy workloads. In contrast, eMCOS provides a high degree of independence between cores, greatly improving the system’s overall responsiveness and stability. This design is particularly effective in multi-core and many-core processor environments, where it enables maximum performance.

3. Support for Migrating Applications Developed on Linux

eMCOS is a POSIX-compliant real-time operating system that allows PoC assets developed on Linux to be adapted more smoothly for real-time systems by reusing existing development knowledge and code structures.

Applications developed using POSIX API are highly portable, allowing developers to effectively leverage their existing knowledge and the code base.

When Linux-specific libraries that do not use the POSIX API are involved, the migration process requires special attention.

eMCOS supports widely adopted open source development ecosystems such as Visual Studio Code, Eclipse, CMake, and LLVM, allowing flexible development without vendor lock-in. It also offers extensive analysis and debugging features, including profilers and JTAG debugging tools, and integrates easily with CI/CD pipelines, enabling both high quality and rapid development.  

In addition, eSOL provides comprehensive engineering services that support the entire development lifecycle, from system design to operation, ensuring strong support throughout the process.

4. Cost and License Management

The eMCOS SDK is provided as an all-in-one package that integrates the OS itself with middleware, tools and debuggers. This allows developers to work efficiently in a Linux-like command environment.

With its simple licensing model that includes runtime and support costs, managing expenses becomes straightforward, and the burden of environment setup is greatly reduced. Note, however, that a separate mass-production license agreement is required for deployment.

In addition, all license information is included with the product, and it is possible to configure a system that excludes licenses requiring source code disclosure, such as GPL. This enables developers to take advantage of OSS benefits while protecting intellectual property and minimizing legal risks, creating a secure and reliable development environment.

5. In-House Development, Long-Term Support, and Reliable Mass Production Assistance

eSOL provides a comprehensive support framework made possible by its in-house developed and integrated products. All processes, from development, integration and sales to customer support, are handled entirely in-house, enabling true one-stop service.

We respond to customer challenges with detailed explanations backed by our solid technical expertise and extensive field experience in embedded applications. Close collaboration between our support and development teams ensures quick and accurate responses to any issues.

Optional on-site support is also available, allowing us to provide extensive assistance throughout your complete product lifecycle, whether it is development, mass production or operational sales.

As an extension of our support offerings, eSOL also provides engineering services. These services not only resolve technical issues but also support the transition from Linux-based prototypes, the integration of eMCOS into customer architectures, and development work that extends beyond the RTOS layer, including frameworks and end user applications. This enables reliable, long-term support throughout the entire product life cycle.

Conclusion

This article summarized the key challenges that often arise when moving from Linux-based prototyping to mass production, and introduced approaches that can help address them. 

Functional Safety Challenges
Functional safety requirements often exceed what general-purpose Linux can deliver. Adopting a functional-safety-compliant OS and leveraging consulting services can help ensure that safety goals are met. In some cases, combining multiple operating systems based on application needs can also be an effective approach.

Stability and Real-Time Performance Under High Load
After evaluating system performance requirements, it is important to determine whether a general-purpose Linux distribution can really satisfy the required real-time constraints or whether a dedicated real-time OS is more suitable. 

Limitations in Reusing Prototype Linux Applications
POSIX-compliant real-time operating systems can help reduce porting effort by reusing existing development knowledge. Engineering services can further support migration, design reviews, tuning, and other related tasks. 

Cost and License Management Concerns
“Free” software does not always translate to lower total cost. Leveraging commercial products and professional services can be a more cost-effective approach when considering long-term development and maintenance.

Concerns About Support Structure
eSOL provides a reliable support framework that includes in-house development, long-term support, and assistance through the mass production phase.

In actual development, individual considerations often differ depending on the environment and project requirements. If you have questions about the topics covered here, or would like to discuss the challenges specific to your development project, please feel free to contact us.