AN 763: Intel® Arria® 10 SoC Device Design Guidelines

ID 683192
Date 5/17/2022
Public
Document Table of Contents

5.1.3.1. Using Linux or RTOS

There are several operating systems that support the Intel® Arria® 10 SoC, including Linux OS. For more information, go to Intel's SoC Partner OS ecosystem webpage.

Intel® supports a variety of Linux kernel choices for the SoC devices. Supported kernels include the latest stable kernel, latest Long Term Support Initiative (LTSI) kernel, and the LTSI kernel with real-time preemption (PREEMPT_RT).

From a user-space perspective, Intel enables the Yocto Project compatible, Angstrom distribution.

Partner OS providers offer board support packages and commercial support for the SoC FPGA devices. The Linux community also offers board support packages and community support for the SoC FPGA device.

There are many factors that go into the selection of an operation system for SoC FPGAs including the features of the operating system, licensing terms, collaborative software projects and frameworks based on the OS, available device drivers and reference software, in-house legacy code and familiarity with the OS, real time requirements of your system, functional safety and other certifications required for your application.

To select an appropriate OS for your application, Intel® recommends that you familiarize yourself with the features and support services offered by the commercial and open source operating systems available for the SoC FPGA. Intel’s OS partners, industry websites are a good source of information you can use to help make your selection.

There are a number of misconceptions when it comes to real time performance of operating systems versus bare metal applications. For an Arm* Cortex* A-class of processor there are a number of features that real time operating systems provide that make efficient use of the processor’s resources in addition to the facilities provided to manage the run-time application.

You may find that these efficiencies result in sufficient real time performance for your application, enabling you to inherit a large body of available device drivers, middleware packages, software applications and support services. It is important to take this into account when selecting an operating system.