ARC International, the supplier of configurable RISC CPU/DSP processor cores and application platforms, is to collaborate with Express Logic, the supplier of RTOS, to provide ARC customers with ThreadX RTOS support for ARC 600 and 700 configurable processor cores and ARCtangent cores.
Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS provides a multitasking solution for embedded developers.
Combined with ARC's configurable cores, Express Logic's picokernel architecture delivers high-performance and small memory requirements scaling down to 4Kbytes for reduced memory costs. ThreadX provides ARC 600 and ARC 700 application developers with fast software timers and a mechanism to help reduce context switching called preemption-threshold.
Also available for the ARC 600 and 700 processors is the suite of Express Logic offerings, including the NetX TCP/IP network stack, FileX file management system, and PegX graphics subsystem.
'Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS support makes it easier for engineers to develop deeply embedded applications that benefit from the flexibility and configurability offered by our cores,' explained David Fritz, ARC's vice president of Business Development. 'Additionally, the ThreadX RTOS is supported by our MetaDeveloper Tools and will also be supported by Green Hills tools when they become available to our customers early in Q3, 2004, providing our customers with maximum software and tool support.'
'ARC cores are extremely popular in the fast-growing markets of network communications, digital media products and consumer electronics, and we want to support that important customer base with ThreadX,' said William E Lamie, Express Logic's president.
'We extend our penetration of that market by offering ThreadX users another development platform. Thanks to our relationship with ARC, the ARC 600 and ARC 700 platforms offered a natural choice.'
The ARC 600 CPU/DSP is a configurable and extendible RISC processor core. At the heart of the ARC 600 is a 32bit five-stage RISC architecture. By combining RISC and DSP functions within a single core, the ARC 600 can replace a dual processor system and reduce area and power. The ARC 700 CPU/DSP is a 7-stage 32bit scalar RISC architecture that is suited to high data rate applications. While capable of high clock rates, the ARC 700 has been crafted to not make large tradeoffs in area for performance.
Express Logic and ThreadX are headquartered in San Diego. It offers advanced run-time solutions for deeply embedded applications, including the ThreadX RTOS, the TCP/IP stack NetX and the embedded MS-DOS file system FileX.