Using the Winsock API

An eRTOS design goal is to have as much source-level compatibility as possible between the TCP/IP stack and the Winsock API (the API used to develop TCP/IP applications for Microsoft Windows). The TCP/IP stack is based on the Treck Inc. Treck TCP/IP version 6.0.1.34 Release.

The Winsock API is divided into 2 primary APIs: BSD and Winsock Extensions. The BSD group is Microsoft's version of the Berkeley Standard API. The Winsock extensions are additional APIs developed by Microsoft to further enhance the functionality of the protocol stack, particularly in the area of asynchronous notification of network events. The enhanced functionality provided by the Winsock extensions is not guaranteed to be deterministic. It is recommended that applications be developed using the BSD API rather than the Winsock Extensions. Winsock extensions are easy to identify by their WSA prefix.

A list of Winsock functions that are supported by the TCP/IP stack is included in the eRTOS SDK Reference Manual. A list of commonly used Winsock options that are NOT supported by the WinSock compatibility layer of the protocol stack is in the Winsock Compatibility Issues section of the eRTOS SDK Reference Manual.

Note: The Winsock Compatibility Issues list covers only the most commonly used APIs. When in doubt, refer to the individual API descriptions in this help system for detailed information about what is supported/unsupported for any given API.

Note: In any real-time application, initialization and cleanup procedures are necessary but assumed to be non-deterministic, and therefore should never fall within critical real-time loops. The same is true for WSAStartup and WSACleanup which are non-deterministic but must be used for proper initialization and cleanup.

Topics:

• The Nagle Algorithm
• Winsock API Reference