Operating Systems

An operating system is a computer program that provides essential functions and services for the computer. These services can be used by applications to be run on the system.

Most operating systems allow running multiple applications at the same time (i.e., multitasking). However, the processor core can only deal with an application at a time. To be able to have multitasking, the operating system has a scheduler. The scheduler is responsible to 'schedule' which application should run and when. Doing this gives the perception that the computer can multitask while the scheduler is rapidly switching between applications.

Vitro Shard

Vitro Shard doesn't come with any pre-programmed flash. However, if the user wants to use our API, it is available on our Github repository an application demonstration with our API and SDK that relies on Mbed OS. Mbed OS is an open-source operating system designed for IoT; you can check more here. It has an extensive API used on the demonstration application, our API, and SDK. You can check the complete API list for Mbed OS 5 here. There are two main guides regarding the API. We recommend you to read both of them: Building Your First Application and The API.

Vitro Crystal

The operating system available for Vitro Crystal is the Yocto-based OS. In case you want to install it, you can follow the Vitro Crystal OS Installation guide.

The Yocto project is an open-source collaboration project. Its objective is to make it easier for developers to create their own custom Linux distribution. It follows a layer model, where you can separate information in your build, e.g., application layers. One important layer is the Board Support Package (BSP) that allows the operating system to run in particular hardware. Many silicon vendors make the BSP available for developers. You can learn more about the Yocto project by checking their documentation and manual.

Vitro Crystal has its own Yocto-based OS, dedicated for IoT Block based applications (like the demonstration application). This means that Vitro Crystal is the gateway, and Vitro Shard and Vitro Shard Edge are the end-device connected through one of the transport protocols.