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Express Logic’s ThreadX/MCU RTOS Scores well in Microchip Technology’s PIC24 Benchmarks

22nd January 2008

Express Logic

ES Admin

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Express Logic, Inc. has announced benchmark results for its ThreadX/MCU RTOS, running on Microchip Technology’s PIC24 16-bit microcontroller. ThreadX/MCU performed up to 50% better than other RTOSes measured by the Thread-Metric benchmark suite. Express Logic’s ThreadX/MCU’s performance is a result of its advanced, highly-optimized architecture that has been fine-tuned over the course of its use in over 450 million electronic products.

The Thread-Metric benchmark suite is a freely-available set of benchmarks that measures many aspects of RTOS performance, helping developers identify the bottlenecks in the real-time performance of their applications. Criteria such as interrupt response, context-switching, message passing, thread scheduling, memory allocation, and synchronization are particularly important for microcontroller-based designs where efficiency and a small, fast RTOS makes a significant difference. The Thread-Metric benchmark suite source code is available for free download from http://www.embedded.com/code/2007code.htm

“These results are most impressive, and give our PIC24 and dsPIC DSC customers an efficient RTOS to use in their microcontroller-based designs,” noted Terry Schmidt, marketing manager for Microchip’s Advanced Microcontroller Architecture Division. “ThreadX/MCU also simplifies our customers’ migration from 16-bit PIC24/dsPIC DSC designs to 32-bit designs based on our new PIC32 microcontroller family, by providing a consistent API across all of our processor platforms.”
“We are very pleased with the performance of ThreadX/MCU on Microchip’s PIC24 microcontroller,” commented William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. “This level of performance reflects the high level of optimization and advanced technology embodied in ThreadX/MCU for the PIC24. Developers can take advantage of this performance for PIC24 or dsPIC DSC designs, and know that they’re getting the most from these outstanding processors.”

Express Logic’s ThreadX/MCU RTOS is a small (2KB – 10KB), fast, royalty-free, affordable RTOS based on the highly popular ThreadX® RTOS, and is optimized for 16-bit microcontrollers such as Microchip’s PIC24 16-bit family and dsPIC® Digital Signal Controllers (DSCs). All tests were run on a Microchip 40 MIPS PIC24HJ256GP610 PIC24 16-bit microcontroller.

Several RTOS products were tested by an independent party, using the Thread-Metric benchmark suite, and the results were reported on Microchip’s web site: http://forum.microchip.com/tm.aspx?m=279201&mpage=1. ThreadX/MCU is available through www.microchipDIRECT.com or from Express Logic at license prices starting at $5,990 with no royalties. Free evaluation copies are available for download as well.