Apex.OS 1.3 meta operating system is now available

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Apex.AI introduces a deterministic executor with version 1.3 of the mobility operating system, which abstracts the complex scheduling policies of different Linux/RTOS variants and further facilitates the development of a security-certifiable software stack. With the upgrade, the Apex.OS and Apex.Middleware can be used together for the first time. From the very beginning, the award winning Apex.OS has been a customer-oriented and extremely developer-friendly framework for creating modern, automotive-oriented software.

With the update to Apex.OS 1.3, the meta-operating system for mobility, smart machines and IoT comes another step closer to meeting customer needs. Apex.AI CEO Dr. Jan Becker: “Our customers work on applications for advanced driver assistance systems or autonomous driving with multiple sensors and software components based on Apex.OS. These applications are built as complex graphs with a combination of data- and time-driven workflows that need to run deterministically and in real-time. Apex.OS 1.3 now simplifies the development of a safety-certifiable software stack because the new version has a deterministic executor.” This executor objectifies the complex scheduling policies of different Linux/RTOS software variants and reduces complexity in the development of safety-certifiable software.

Middleware guarantees real-time data processing and zero copy communication

Apex.OS 1.3 addresses the desire to deterministically replay the data of systems under test. Determinism allows the execution of tests and validations required for the use of functions in the automotive industry on public roads and forms the basis for real-time executions. With this capability of Apex.OS, it is now possible to replay a simulated or recorded scenario any number of times and with the confidence that the same behavior will be observed each time it is replayed. This makes validating a software stack to meet the ISO 26262 standard much easier.

The update also allows Apex.Middleware to be used in conjunction with the OS system. Apex.Middleware is the answer to problems that can arise when software components run on different processors generating gigabytes of data with latencies of microseconds. In this case, Apex.Middleware guarantees real-time data transmission with zero copy communication. This data transfer between sender and receiver, completely without generating copies, brings two major advantages at once, because it pushes latency to a minimum and reduces processor utilization.

Node graph of an advanced automotive software system

The software is designed to be used with any other development framework besides Apex.OS, including AUTOSAR Adaptive. Apex.Middleware was developed as a highly optimized integration of Eclipse Cyclone DDS and Eclipse iceoryx – it is the turbo for customer applications.

An update with additional facilitations for the users

The documentation for Apex.OS users has also been expanded significantly to facilitate developer productivity. This includes instructions for porting code from ROS or ROS 2 to Apex.OS and a description of how to use the zero copy feature to ensure extremely low latency for large amounts of data such as camera and lidar images.

Apex.AI does not see the work on Apex.OS as a one-way street and has therefore contributed features and performance improvements to the open source ROS 2 project, amongst others in rosbag2, to support the work of the ROS community. Jan Becker summarizes: “With our continuing development of Apex.Middleware, we were able to make significant contributions to the Eclipse Cyclone DDS and Eclipse iceoryx projects. We are pleased to be able to advance these open source projects and would like to thank the community for making it possible with their work to develop and deploy advanced applications without having to constantly reinvent the core building blocks.”

With the upgrade to 1.3, these core building blocks, which are firmly anchored in Apex.OS, now have an even greater chance of becoming an industry standard for the mobile world.