HIPPEROS stands for High Performance Parallel Embedded Real-time Operating Systems.

It is thus targeted at specific custom embedded applications that have one or more of those characteristics. It is thus not an all-purpose operating system for high volume portable devices, such as smartphones.

HIPPEROS can be better defined by invoking the following characteristics.

First, HIPPEROS is a new operating system whose aim is to be an operating system for systems that combine all the above properties, as well as power awareness and other characteristics, in an efficient way in the same operating system, while integrating new knowledge of feasibility tests and scheduling algorithms for multi-processor systems.

Second, HIPPEROS aims to a be a generic operating system that, using previously generated information about the target application, can be tailored and instantiated for a specific custom application.

Third, HIPPEROS is an operating system that is particularly aware of new possibilities and features offered by the system hardware. HIPPEROS will explicitly handle and exploit such features as variable processor frequencies, switching processors on and off, and will benefit from “hardware services” such as preemption, migration, context switching, … In particular, HIPPEROS is targeted for parallel architectures, even heterogeneous ones.

Fourth, HIPPEROS aims at high reliability and security, being targeted at safety-critical or mission-critical applications. Reliability, redundancy and safety are key issues. HIPPEROS thus strives for determinism, standards conformance or even certification.

Tanenbaum writes that operating systems are usually ugly, heavy and unreliable systems. HIPPEROS will be as complex as needed for efficiency, but as simple as possible to make it reliable.

The rationale of this new development is that there is at the moment no operating system that efficiently handles real-time multi-processor applications for those platforms, which will become more and more common in the near future.