FAQ

General

• What is the NicheTask?
• Why use NicheTask?
• Why is it free?
• Why is InterNiche Technologies distributing royalty free embedded operating system source code?
• What is included?
• What are the license terms?
• Who else is using NicheTask?
• Am I on my own if I use NicheTask?
• Can I advertise on FreeRTOS.com?

Sort of Technical

• Preemption?
• What ports are available?
• What tools and add-ons are available for NicheTask?
• Are enhancements available?

Rather Technical

• What is a BSP?
• How do I contribute my enhancements?

• What is the NicheTask?
• NicheTask, is a non-preemptive operating system, derived from code placed in the public domain by Carnegie Mellon University. Since 1998 it has been used as the principal in-house OS by InterNiche Technologies.


• Why use NicheTask?
• NicheTask a small, efficient and flexible task execution system and is royalty free. Many companies have developed embedded operating systems and RTOS's that may cost thousand dollars in licensing and royalty fees.


• Why is it free?
• Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom for the users of the software:
  1. The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.
  2. The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this.)
  3. The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor.
  4. The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. (Access to the source code is a precondition for this.)
  5. Courtesy GNU.org


• Why is InterNiche Technologies distributing royalty free embedded operating system source code?
• Our goal in releasing NicheTask under an open source license is to make available a small, lightweight multitasking system for any embedded device, harness the pool of talented embedded developers, and further enhance NicheTask functionality by leveraging the imagination, development and debugging efforts of the NicheTask user community.


• What is included?
• The NicheTask distribution includes: the NicheTask source code written in C, make/build files, and a number of reference ports.


• What are the license terms?
• What we've tried to do with this license is say that you can use it for most anything, but if you found it necessary to make modifications to NicheTask or to add features you needed, return them to FreeRTOS.com for possible inclusion in future releases. View the license
  It's pretty simple, really - The cost of the RTOS is your promise to help improve it.
  Specific questions about the license should be directed to License@FreeRTOS.com


• Who else is using NicheTask?
• NicheTask has been distributed with the InterNiche's NicheStack products for a number of years and has been utilized in hundreds of embedded products.


• Am I on my own if I use NicheTask?
• You certainly don't have to be. In addition to example ports published on FreeRTOS.com, there is also a Yahoo!Group dedicated to technical discussion of NicheTask, improvements and enhancements. Ports and BSPs uploaded through the group will be made available through FreeRTOS.com


• Can I advertise on FreeRTOS.com ?
• Of COURSE you can! For more information, please contact Marketing@FreeRTOS.com


• Preemption?
• In simple terms, preemption is what happens when the operating system decides to take control of the CPU from the executing task. Co-operative scheduling, on the other hand, is the scheme whereby the task itself decides to yield the CPU. NicheTask is a Co-operative, multi-tasking scheduler.


• What ports are available?
• InterNiche and user contributed ports are available on the Ports and BSPs page.


• What tools and add-ons are available for NicheTask?
• InterNiche Technologies and their partners offer a number of protocol and development tool offerings that are fully compatible with NicheTask. Take a look now!


• Are enhancements available?
• In addition to Ports, BSPs and enhancements contributed by NicheTask adopters, there are commercial extras available from a growing list of vendors.
  Look at InterNiche (www.iniche.com) for Embedded TCP/IP Solutions or NicheTask's Yahoo!Group for more information.


• What is a BSP?
• A BSP is a Board Support Package, and is the only part of NicheTask that is tied to the particular hardware and toolchain selected for the project. This is the code which initializes the processor and peripherals, initializes the interrupt mechanism and performs task switches.
  In the simplest case (for example the Win32 and x86/Linux ports, which don't use interrupts) the BSP sets up a task's stack so that when a task calls the scheduler, it "returns" from another task.


• How do I contribute my enhancements?
• Use the file upload are in the NicheTask discussion group on Yahoo!Groups. Contributions will be evaluated and made available through FreeRTOS.com either in their "raw" form or will be incorporated in future releases.