Page 28
Linux in
Medical
Devices
As promised, this is the second part of a multipart series on medical device architecture. If you read the first edition of TMS, we reviewed the
basic computer architecture and based modern medical device architecture on the same principles. If you look at it from the point of view of the
microprocessor, a medical device and a computer aren‘t very different.
If you‘re ready to learn more about what‘s inside your medical devices
then take the red pill and we‘ll show you how deep Linux goes. If you
choose the blue pill, you wake up at your work bench, and believe whatever you want to believe; performing electrical safety checks and precise calibrations.
In this article, the reader will be able to:
Identify embedded OS in a medical device
Identify the uniqueness of an embedded OS versus a personal
computer
Identify the common components of an Embedded OS
First: The Other-Windows CE
In the world of computers and Laptops, you may have heard of the
―other operating system‖, referring to Windows. There are devoted Operating Systems (OS) users that distance themselves from Windows as
if it were the plague, but we‘ll find out to each has its own strength.
We‘ll briefly introduce you to Windows CE in this article but continue it
for a later issue. In the embedded OS world, Windows CE (Windows
Embedded Compact) is a component based, 32-bit, real-time-operatingsystem, by Microsoft, licensed to original equipment manufacturers; in
our case medical device manufacturers. It was initially released in 1996.
Developers of Windows CE applications write the program in C code
and it supports the x86(Intel), Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages (MIPS), and ARM, and ARM – originally Acorn RISC Machine, now Advanced RISC Machine (ARM). That‘s all we‘ll mention for
now.