Real time OS/embedded programming

Does anyone here have experience with or knowledge about real time operating systems or embedded programming? I have questions..

I did a small project on RT-Linux once, though I am by no stretch of imagination an embedded systems engineer... what do ya wanna know?

I forgot most of it, but I can try

I worked on a large project using VxWorks on an embedded software radio for the military... If that's the sort of thing you mean.

(I much prefer making video games now...)

Wow, lotta responses!

Tiger--that's *exactly* what I mean. Where I live there are a bunch of large military companies...L-3 Communications, CSC, and Lockheed Martin. I keep hearing that they like embedded programming experience and real time OS experience. There's also other companies that do this stuff around here so I think I'm interested in getting into the field--but I'm not sure where to start. I've been doing application development in C/C++ for years but apparently that isn't enough.

Anyway what I'd like to know is--how can I go about starting to learn this on my own so I can land a job doing this kind of work? From research so far it seems like an interesting enough field to do as a hobby. I need some way to stand out, I guess.

From an old post on gamedev.net I found some information about this and some websites like www.zworld.com which has some interesting looking "development kits".

I'm willing to spend some money to learn this if I have to but I'm still not sure where to start, or what to do for a "demo project", etc.

So I have a reasonable budget for books/stuff and plenty of time since I'm mostly just job hunting--anyone have any recommendations on what I should try?

Well, most embedded systems programming now-a-days is done with one of a couple system packages. VxWorks may be one of the bigger ones, but I'm not sure since it IS the only one I know.

Really, it's just like programming for anything else, as far as I'm concerned. But some projects might have specific needs as far as programmer knowledge goes. For instance, in my project, the "box" had several interchangeable processor cards in it, and the software had to manage threads across them all.

So perhaps learning threaded programming is good, and getting your hands on VxWorks or a similar embedded platform would be good.

Ahh, thanks Tiger.

Anyone know where I can get something free that I could try out? (maybe RT-Linux?)

I've heard of VxWorks before, that's also an RTOS right? Can anything like it be emulated on a Windows or *nix machine? (I assume that's how this type of development is done..?)

What kind of small projects could I work on for a learning experience? What can you do with a real time OS that you can't do on Windows or Unix? Yeek I have a million questions...don't know where to start.

Garoad if you dont even know what a realtime system is how are you ever going to find a job working on them?
The gist is that some real world applications are heavily dependent on time, and so the software that supports it must complete its processing in a predictable time frame, without delays. I had a class on RT systems in college, I could quote some stuff from my book but it would be easier if you just googled for some info.
Start with good ole wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realtime
As for RT-Linux, www.rtlinux.org

I've read about the 'theory' and I know about the timing issues, but I've never seen any of it in practice. I'm really trying to ask for specific examples of small scale projects that can reasonably be done by one person as a learning experience.

Obviously I'm not going to apply for a position specifically requiring this experience but the main company I'm looking at "likes" to see this stuff on the side, so I'm told (even though it isn't mentioned in the requirements of what I'm going for). They probably want to know that they can shift people around and not have a problem.

Whatever the case, starting to learn this stuff can't hurt. I have to start somewhere but I never had a class on this back in college, so I'm not sure where to start. (Well I may have had a class touch on this but it was awhile ago, and I think it was with a bad teacher we had one time around...it was a total waste of a class...bad luck eh?)