Latest Technical Details About Embedded

Express Logic, Inc. has released the latest version of its ThreadX RTOS. Version 5.2 builds on the already small, fast ThreadX 5.1 framework, providing developers with the fastest ThreadX version ever.

Based on the RTOS-independent Thread-Metric Benchmark Suite, which measures RTOS real-time performance, ThreadX V5.2 delivers faster processing speed across the board, with the best improvements noted in the area of message processing, says Express Logic. Previously achieving a total of 6,928,383 iterations of the Thread-Metric message processing test, ThreadX V5.2 now scores top marks with 7,853,195 iterations, a 13.3% performance increase.

Already one of the smallest RTOSes on the market, with an overall ROM footprint as low as 2K bytes, ThreadX 5.2 reduces its minimal RAM requirements for global memory, bringing it down to 364 bytes.

All ThreadX architectures and tools versions now support Express Logic's TraceX graphical event analysis tool that helps developers visualise the behaviour of their real-time systems. ThreadX developers using Green Hills MULTI development tools are no longer limited to Green Hills' EventAnalyser, but now can also elect to use TraceX.

ThreadX V5.2 also hosts new developer-friendly features, such as dynamic event filtering, expanded event trace, and SMP enhancement. With ThreadX V5.2's new ability to provide dynamic event filtering, each category of events can be enabled or disabled dynamically, allowing the developer to focus on a particular sub-set of events. Event filtering reduces the clutter of unnecessary events, allowing more pertinent events to be logged and displayed, so developers are able to quickly find the most relevant information for their current investigation.

ThreadX V5.2 also introduces a generic SMP framework, making ThreadX more portable to new multi-core environments. Currently, the ThreadX/SMP version for the MIPS 34K takes full advantage of this new SMP foundation in ThreadX V5.2.

ThreadX V5.2 is available immediately from Express Logic, with full source-code, royalty-free licences starting at Rs.6.21 lakh (US$12,500).