Chapter 1. An Introduction to the eCos World

In this first chapter, we take a brief look at the origins of the Embedded Configurable Operating System (eCos) and the people and company behind it. We then get an overview of the configurable architecture of eCos, the core functionality, the different processors and evaluation platforms supported, and technical assistance options available.

Lastly, we get an overview of the eCos architecture and a look at the terminology used to describe the different pieces of the configuration system. The overview gives us a general idea of the components we detail in later chapters, and the terminology described in this chapter is used throughout the book.