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Express Logic ThreadX® RTOS Now Supports ARMv8 64-Bit Processors
[November 11, 2015]

Express Logic ThreadX® RTOS Now Supports ARMv8 64-Bit Processors


Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free, real-time operating systems (RTOSes) with over 2 billion units deployed, today announced that its industry-leading ThreadX® RTOS supports ARMv8 64-bit processors, including the Cortex-A53, Cortex-A57, and Cortex-A72 processors. Although 32-bit devices currently dominate the embedded space-with the ARM (News - Alert) 32-bit Cortex processors commanding the lion's share of the market-there is a growing demand for 64-bit processors like the ARMv8. That is because the performance and power efficiency of such processors is essential for addressing challenges surrounding the IOT connectivity explosion and growing consumer demand for the ability to create, share, and consume large volumes of information.

Customer Demand Driving Up Processor (News - Alert) Power Needs

The current appetite of customers for ever-increasing functionality has shifted the focus of applications. For example, smartphone users not only want to capture premium high-quality photos and videos, but also want to be able to edit such content, an activity that requires performance levels more typical of 64-bit processors like the ARMv8. Consequently, say analysts, enhanced image-editing features are expected to migrate into basic smartphones and other mobile devices over the next few years, creating extensive performance and power-efficiency demands on microprocessors and RTOSes alike.

Other consumer products, such as televisions and set-top boxes, and business products, such as site and local servers, manage rapidly increasing volumes of information for supporting high-definition video, photos and other images, and text while using very little power. In all three cases-mobile devices, stationary consumer products, and business servers-ARMv8 64-bit processors are an ideal fit.



ThreadX RTOS Offers Highest Performance, Smallest Footprint

ThreadX addresses the high-performance, real-time needs of the ARMv8 64-bit space in two ways. First, ThreadX support for ARMv8 64-bit processors provides the industry's highest real-time responsiveness and performance with a memory footprint of less than 7KB. Second, ThreadX provides context switches measured in nanoseconds and API service times on the order of 100-200 cycles-speeds found in a rare few such products.


"Our support for the ARMv8 architecture enables embedded developers to address demanding requirements for managing ever-larger volumes of content while using minimal processor cycles and memory," commented William E. Lamie, President of Express Logic. "As well, ThreadX enables developers to make the most of powerful processors by supporting the highest performance and fastest real-time response."

Support for Safety Certification

For developers creating 64-bit applications for devices requiring safety certifications, Express Logic ThreadX is also ideal. ThreadX was the first RTOS to earn UL/IEC (News - Alert) 60730-1 annex H safety certification and is precertified to most relevant standards, including IEC 61508, IEC 62304, ISO 26262, EN 50128, CSA E60730-1 Annex H, UL 60335-1 Annex R, IEC 60335-1 Annex R, and UL 1998. ThreadX comes complete with source code developed entirely by Express Logic and is 100 percent MISRA-C compliant to both the 2004 and 2012 standards.

The combination of ThreadX performance and precertifications makes ThreadX the perfect RTOS for the development of 64-bit applications and next-generation IOT devices.

About Express Logic and ThreadX

Headquartered in San Diego, CA (News - Alert), Express Logic, Inc., offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX® RTOS, the high-performance NetX™ and NetX Duo™ TCP/IP stacks, the FileX® embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, the USBX™ Host/Device USB protocol stack, and the GUIX™ embedded graphical user interface development toolkit. Most products from Express Logic include full source code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit the Web site at www.expresslogic.com, call 1-800-THREADX, or e-mail inquiries to [email protected].

ThreadX, TraceX, and FileX are registered trademarks, and Safety-Critical Certification Pack, NetX, USBX, GUIX, GUIX Studio, preemption-threshold, picokernel, and UDP (News - Alert) fast path technology are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.


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