As I understand, a BSP (Board Support Package) contains bootloader, kernel and device driver which help OS to work on HW. But I'm confused because OS also contains a kernel. So what is the difference between the kernel in OS and the kernel in BSP?
5 Answers
10
votes
What a BSP comprises of depends on context; generically it is code or libraries to support a specific board design. That may be provided as generic code from the board supplier for use in a bare-metal system or for integrating with an OS, or it may be specific to a particular OS, or it may even include an OS. In any case it provides board specific support for higher-level software.
A kernel is board agnostic (though often processor architecture specific), and makes no direct access to hardware not intrinsic to the processor architecture on which it runs. Typically an OS or application will require a Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL); the HAL may well be built using the BSP, or the BSP may in fact be the HAL. A vendor may even package a HAL and OS and refer to that as a BSP.
The term means what it means to whoever is using it - context is everything. For example in VxWorks, WindRiver use the term BSP to refer to the layer that supports the execution of a VxWorks based application on a specific hardware design. A board vendor on the other hand may provide a complete Linux distribution ported to the board and refer to that as a BSP.
However and to what extent a particular vendor or developer chooses to support a board is a board support package regardless of how much or how little it may contain.
5
votes
BSP definition is broad. It is a supporting software package for a specific board. BSP for a tiny microcontroller probably just contains HW drivers for its peripherals. On the other hand, for an embedded CPU it may contain HW drivers, bootloader and OS kernel and what not.
So the kernel in a BSP (board support package) is just a specific version of an OS kernel that has been ported to your board.
3
votes
Im probably just saying the same things already said.
You have a chip and/or board product you want to sell to other (software) developers. A reference design (board) with the chip(s) in question are used. The BSP is a vague term to mean the software that is provided to you as a software developer to ideally make your life easier in using that product (chip and/or board) and adding your software to it or developing for it. So if it is a linux or rtos or other operating system capable platform and the vendor (providing the bsp) believes that users want an operating system and a specific operating system, then instead of you having to port the os to that target, they do it for you. If something like linux that is open source, then you either are told which linux sources to download then the patches made by the bsp are added and/or the bsp contains the complete sources for the whole thing already patched. Drivers, applications as deemed necessary by the vendor etc. Multiple operating systems may be supported if the vendor feels that is needed in order to attract customers to buy that board/chip product.
The whole package of software that you get from them to make that chip/board into your own product, is the BSP.
0
votes
vxWorks kernel which you can run on a Board contains vxWorks core kernel and "other components" which may change from one environment. Core kernel contains essential programs such as Scheduler, Memory manager, Basic File systems, security features etc. These "other components" which are part of BSP may be optional or may vary from system to system, and helps the core kernel features.
