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INTEGRITY RTOS Uses Intel XScale Microarchitecture to Deliver High Reliability

My cell phone can play games, surf the web, remember phone numbers, ring in a variety of tunes, and, oh yes, it also can find a nearby cell site and enable me to talk to virtually anyone on the face of the earth. It does this in spite of atmospheric interference, competition for airwaves from millions of other phones, and reliance on its little self-contained battery. Of course, it uses a 32-bit microprocessor with gobs of memory and a real-time operating system to get all of this done. But, it still only costs about $100. Amazing. And that's just today; what will phones be like next year? And beyond? If history is any indication, phones, along with dozens of other consumer and industrial devices, will get smarter, faster, and even more affordable. This is because the factors that influence their intelligence, speed and price, namely processor and memory cost, are declining. But, as cell phones get more and more powerful, will they remain reliable?

The demand for more sophisticated applications is strong, fueled by consumer interest and competitive pressure. Sophisticated applications require larger programs, hence more memory and faster processors. As memory gets less expensive, and processors get more powerful, application programs can become more feature-rich in order to achieve competitive advantage. The phone that doesn't evolve will not sell.

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