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Product category: Embedded Software and Operating Systems
News Release from: Express Logic | Subject: ThreadX V5
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial Team on 5 April 2006

RTOS makes the most of 32bit MCUs

An enhanced version of the popular ThreadX RTOS provides a better fit for microcontroller-based applications, and adds many new development benefits for all users

Express Logic has introduced an enhanced version of its popular ThreadX RTOS. Smaller and faster, ThreadX Version 5.0 (ThreadX V5) provides a better fit for microcontroller-based applications, and adds many new development benefits for all users. Advanced run-time stack analysis, built in trace, Event-Chaining and priority flexibility enable programmers to identify application problem areas and fine-tune system performance.

With these new features and a continuation of Express Logic's royalty-free licensing model, ThreadX V5 promises to further its market penetration beyond the already extensive 300 million deployments announced today.

Dominating in markets such as inkjet printers, wireless networking, digital cameras, cellphones, medical equipment and specialised imaging systems such as the Deep Impact and Mars Reconaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft, ThreadX has established itself as a highly efficient ideal RTOS for the most demanding real-time applications.

ThreadX V5 further aids developers in these application areas by bringing them the several technological enhancements.

ThreadX V5 introduces several optimisations to make it even smaller and faster.

ThreadX V5 can be configured at compile time down to a ROM footprint under 6Kbyte - making it ideal for resource-constrained microcontroller devices.

ThreadX V5 introduces Event-Chaining, a service that greatly simplifies thread activation in complex real-time situations involving multiple independent events.

With this innovation, for example, a thread can wait on multiple messages from several queues, and a notify callback simply posts a single semaphore, reducing the number of threads and associated resources required for processing.

To help developers improve device performance and extend product battery life, ThreadX V5 provides performance visibility into: thread resumptions or suspensions; solicited thread or asynchronous thread interrupt pre-emptions; thread priority inversions; thread time-slices; thread relinquishes, timeouts or thread suspensions aborted; and the last thread that pre-empted.

ThreadX V5 can analyse thread stacks during run-time to determine stack overflow or underflow conditions before threads are executed.

ThreadX V5 comes with built-in event trace capability that captures the last 'n' system events in a user-supplied circular buffer on the target system.

This data may be viewed in target memory or exported to the host and viewed graphically in development tools that provide such features.

ThreadX V5 can execute all software timers directly from the timer ISR, eliminating the need for system timer thread resources and context switching.

With ThreadX V5, developers can use up to 1024 distinct priority levels, in increments of 32.

'ThreadX V5 raises the bar for real-time operating systems by increasing its advantages over other RTOSes in the areas of memory footprint, real-time performance, and developer ease of use', commented William E Lamie, President of Express Logic.

'We expect ThreadX V5 to open the door to new microcontroller applications, as well as to further benefit developers of devices based on traditional 32bit RISC processors'.

'This new release of ThreadX will be followed soon by new versions of our NetX TCP/IP network stack, our FileX file system and our USBX USB stack, all combining to give the developer - our customer - the best RTOS possible for device develpment'.

ThreadX V5 is supported with development tools from Altera, Analog Devices, ARC, ARM, Freescale, Green Hills, IAR, MIPS, Wind River, Xilinx and Gnu.

Processor architectures supported include ADI's Blackfin, ARC's 600/700, ARM's ARM7/9/11/Cortex M3, Freescale's PowerPC/ColdFire/StarCore, MIPS' 4k/24k/34k, Xilinx's MicroBlaze, Altera's NIOS II, and many others.

ThreadX V5 is available now, with royalty-free licences starting at $12,500. Request a free brochure from Express Logic....

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