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| ThreadX/MT by Express Logic is Available Express Logic, Inc. has announced the availability of its ThreadX RTOS for the MIPS32 34K multi-threaded (MT) processor core family. Through a cooperative development effort with MIPS Technologies, Express Logic has developed ThreadX/MT, an enhanced version of ThreadX for the MIPS 34K. ThreadX/MT is designed to provide applications with a significant performance boost through its use of the multi-threading capabilities of the MIPS MT application-specific extension (ASE), as implemented in the 34K processor cores. Licensees of the 34K core now will have access to this solution for their performance-intensive designs. The MIPS32 34K family of cores is a multi-threading solution for cost-sensitive embedded applications. Single-threaded microprocessors today waste many cycles while accessing memory, which considerably limits system performance. The 34K cores are designed to minimize the effect of memory latency by increasing processor use of otherwise wasted CPU cycles. As one thread stalls, waiting for access to memory, other threads can feed instructions into the pipeline, resulting in a significant gain in application throughput. Additionally, the 34K core family provides hardware support for real-time responsiveness in embedded applications. Users can allocate dedicated processing bandwidth to real-time tasks resulting in a guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS). MIPS Technologies' benchmarks indicate that the 34Kc core running just two threads achieved a 60% speed increase over a single-threaded processor with only a 14% increase in area. ThreadX/MT is based on Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS, a small, highly efficient embedded OS that minimizes system overhead and provides lightning-fast real-time response. With as small as a 6KB footprint and sub-microsecond interrupt response and context switch, ThreadX/MT perfectly complements the QoS mechanism in the 34K processor. ThreadX/MT introduces technology that automatically, or optionally, manually under program control, calculates 34K QoS weights for application threads to assure that the intended threads get the desired percentages of CPU cycles. write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Computing News :: home page |