What's the reason behind the separation of "i.MX Yocto Project" and "Real-Time Edge SW" platforms?

[daniel_lopez_p]

Hello,

In my work to create a Real-Time Linux kernel for our i.MX6 Solo based board,

I've been working on the customization of the "real-time-edge-linux" 5.15.71 kernel

by means of NXP's Real-Time Edge SW platform. Although the official documentation

does not explicitly mention any support to the i.MX6 Solo board, I've finally managed to

create a working Linux RT kernel for our board. It shows acceptable jitter / latencies for us.

As of today, NXP offers "i.MX Yocto Project" and "Real-Time Edge SW" to generate

images for the i.MX board family. A priori, this makes us understand that NXP made the

decission to make the generation of Real-Time images, OS, etc. completely independent,

by means of different repositories / platforms, despite being based on the others mentioned.

I've observed, for example, "real-time-edge-linux" is being created by merging a tag of

"linux-imx" (provided by "i.MX Yocto Project") and from there, several patches are applied.

It seems the base of both projects is common, so it's a matter of additional customizations.

As a result of this, the following questions have arisen:

Why to release "OpenIL" / "Real-Time Edge SW" separately, instead of implementing

new recipes, layers, etc. to "i.MX Yocto Project"? Does NXP intend to keep working on

the development of new "real-time-edge-linux" versions, "Real-Time Edge SW", etc. as

it does with "linux-imx" (updated to Linux 6.1 kernel, already) and "i.MX Yocto Project"?

In terms of maintainability, I need to know if "Real-Time Edge SW" will have NXP's official

support / evolution as it happens with "i.MX Yocto Project", in order to take it as a solution.

Best regards,

Daniel.

[hector_delgado]

Hi @daniel_lopez_p ,

NXP does offer Real-Time Edge Software as Yocto Project Layers as you can review in the Real-Time Edge Yocto Project User's Guide: https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/user-guide/RTEDGEYOCTOUG_Rev2.5.pdf .

As far as I can tell, Real-Time Edge Software is still supported.

Best regards, 
Hector.

[daniel_lopez_p]

Hello, @hector_delgado.

I know Real-Time Edge SW is provided as a distribution (set of layers) of the Yocto Project.

That's not my question, but the following:

What is the reason for NXP to distinguish these layers ("meta-real-time-edge", etc.) from the

"i.MX Yocto Project" (NXP's Yocto Project layers to support image generation for i.MX boards)

and thus, offer it as an independent project that is specifically oriented to Real-Time features?

According to my analysis, Real-Time Edge SW is a set of layers that customize some of the

recipes in i.MX Yocto Project distribution's layers; just as "real-time-edge-linux" is maintained in a

different repository than "linux-imx", but it's a merge of this, and then additional commits are applied.

This whole scheme could be translated into an additional layer (with required recipes, patches, etc.)

for the Real-Time characterization of the provided packages, elements, etc. but in i.MX Yocto Project.

This way, you'd save yourself the need to maintain different repositories and Yocto project distributions.

There must be some detail I'm not aware of, when it comes to understanding the reason for

this separation of Yocto Project distributions, Linux kernel releases, etc. which I'd like to know.

Best regards,

Daniel.

[hector_delgado · Accepted solution]

Hi @daniel_lopez_p ,

Real Time Edge Software is offered separately for the different functionalities it provides; it doesn't fit withing our standard Linux BSP releases. We have it as a separate release because of how we distribute our software. Regarding continued support, I believe it will still be supported (with our latest release being from March).

Best regards,
Hector.

[daniel_lopez_p]

Hello, @hector_delgado.

Thank you so much, once again, for your help!

Best regards,

Daniel.