MQX RTOS

Summary

The MQX Real-time Operating System provides real-time performance within a small, configurable footprint. The MQX RTOS is designed to allow you to configure and balance code size with performance requirements. The easy-to-use MQX API and out-of-box experience ensures first-time RTOS users can start developing their application on the day you install the software but is powerful enough for experienced OS developers easily migrate legacy application code to an MQX-based platform.  MQX RTOS is tightly integrated with the latest ColdFire and PowerPC processors from Freescale and provided with commonly used device drivers. integrated with the CodeWarrior tools and additional profiling and debugging capability is provided by the powerful MQX Host Tools. Integrated with the CodeWarrior tools and complemented with profiling and debugging capability provided by the powerful MQX Host Tools, the MQX RTOS brings a lot of value to an embedded software project.

Key Features

Designed for Embedded | Field Proven | Small Footprint | Real-time Performance | Optimized for ColdFire and PowerPC | CodeWarrior Integration | Processors and BSPs | Hardware Debug | MQX Host Tools | Licensing | Compatible Products

Designed for Embedded Applications

The MQX RTOS was specifically designed for embedded systems.  Taking into account the limited memory and real-time response requirement of many embedded applications, the MQX design created an architecture that provided a RTOS with a full feature set but configurable enough to allow it to fit into very small memory requirements. In addition, real-time performance was a top priority.  Highly optimized code for context switches and interrupt handling is used to ensure rapid response times. 

The MQX RTOS offers multithreading technology with its advanced POSIX-compatible task scheduling, thread operation, and modern message-passing micro-kernel design. The most successful products are the ones that can adapt quickly to meet market needs. That’s why you need a flexible dynamic RTOS like MQX.

The MQX RTOS component-based architecture lets you extend a full-function RTOS core with additional, optional services. MQX includes 25 components—eight are core, and 17 are optional.

Proven in Millions of Shipped Units

Your applications’ stability, your product revenues, and ultimately your company depend on the reliability of the RTOS that you choose. The MQX RTOS is field proven in mission-critical areas such as avionics, aerospace, medical electronics, and data communications. The MQX RTOS is capable of meeting the most demanding requirements.  Leading companies have used MQX products to bring their products to market for years.  MQX has been used in thousands of embedded designs and deployed in millions of fielded units. The MQX RTOS has been used in medical products that require FDA certification and avionics applications that require DO-178B certfication.

Small Configurable Memory Footprint

MQX is implemented as a C library including optimized assembly code for context switching and interrupt handling. Only the features used by the application are included in the image downloaded onto the target. The MQX RTOS can be configured to take as little as 10 KB of ROM for ColdFire® applications, including kernel, interrupts, semaphores, queues and memory manager.

Real-time Performance

In most embedded systems applications need to respond to external events very quickly.  All time-critical services are optimized for speed and determinism. The MQX RTOS is re-entrant (including interrupt service routines), letting it react quickly and be responsive to external events. Context switch and interrupt routines are optimized for each supported processor architecture. The MQX RTOS also provides a very fast boot sequence to ensure the application is running almost instantly after the hardware has been reset. .

The MQX RTOS delivers the performance that demanding customers have come to expect in leading RTOS solutions.  For example, on a 200 MHz PowerPC® MPC8248, benchmarks measure on real hardware showed that MQX RTOS interrupt latency is a mere 0.331 µsec and context switch time was benchmarked at 0.558 µsec.

Optimized for ColdFire and PowerPC Processors

Embedded Access specializes in solutions for ColdFire and PowerPC processors.  Our engineers have been working with ColdFire and PowerPC architectures since their launch and with the 68K architecture before that.  This level of understanding for the ColdFire and PowerPC processor architectures results in the MQX RTOS being specifically optimized for these platforms.  The MQX RTOS includes optimized assembly code to accelerate key real-time portions of the RTOS.  MQX drivers are included for the all of key peripherals found on today’s ColdFire and PowerPC chips.

Integrated with CodeWarrior Tools

MQX products are tightly integrated with Freescale’s CodeWarrior Development Studio, providing a great out-of-box experience for high productivity. MQX RTOS libraries and examples work with ready-to run CodeWarrior IDE project files installed with the MQX run-time products. The MQX RTOS, RTCS Embedded Internet Stack, and other MQX products allow developers to quickly create their own MQX-based applications within the CodeWarrior environment.

For example, the MQX RTOS's MQXDebug plug-in for CodeWarrior, provides CodeWarrior users with transparent visibility of MQX tasks and key RTOS information. This includes task templates, task queues, semaphores, lightweight semaphores, mutexes, events, message queues, message pools, partitions, user memory blocks, system memory blocks, names, the kernel data structure, the MQX initialization structure, interrupt handlers, and the kernel log.

This complete integration of Freescale processors, CodeWarrior tools and Embedded Access software creates a highly productive embedded development environment that has proven to lead to highly successful products for our customers.

Processor and Board Support Packages

The MQX RTOS is currently supported on a full range of leading 32-bit embedded processors, including ColdFire, and PowerPC processors.  Board Support Packages are available for evaluation, development and production boards from Freescale, ADI Engineering, Analogue & Micro, Embedded Planet, Logic PD, Phytec and TQ Components among others.

Device drivers provide control of external peripherals or events. MQX RTOS board support packages supply drivers for Ethernet, HDLC, I2C, SPI, CANBus, flash memory, UARTs, disk controllers, Compact Flash, PCI and many devices. MQX includes specific features that simplify the development and integration of your own device drivers. Device driver source code is provided with an MQX BSP.

Hardware Debugging Support

Communication with your embedded target is important. The MQX RTOS is compatible with leading hardware debugging tools, including products from Abatron, CodeWarrior, Macraigor Systems, P&E Microcomputer Systems, and others.

MQX Host Tools for Design, Profiling and Debugging

Included with the MQX RTOS comes are the MQX Host Tools. This set of advanced Windows-hosted embedded development tools includes:

MQXDesign

• A graphic-based code-generation tool for rapid prototyping to quickly create applications using MQX RTOS and RTCS functionality

MQXDebug

• Allows the CodeWarrior debugger to provide intimate debugging information for the MQX RTOS and RTCS
• Allows viewing of data structures, getting task summaries, viewing contents of specific tasks, and working with queues, messages, semaphores, memory and memory partitions
• Allows many RTOS-aware-debugging features even without a standalone debugger
  

MQXProfile

• Analyzes application execution and performance from the perspective of the MQX RTOS
• Generates detailed, actionable performance information from kernel logs, with full visibility into state transitions, events, mutexes, messages, semaphores, clock, scheduler task creation/destruction, interrupts and RTCS calls

Click here for more information on the MQX Host Tools for Windows.

Business-Friendly, Royalty-Free, Source Licensing Model

The MQX RTOS is licensed and delivered with full source code, so there are no mysteries about how the MQX RTOS operates.  The source code includes all of the MQX driver and BSP code so that users can quickly adapt it and reuse the provide MQX code to port the RTOS to their own hardware.

The simple MQX licensing terms ensures there are no legal ambiguities. The MQX RTOS provides excellent source code without leaving you wondering about potential exposure to the open-source legal issues. Whatever our customers develop is theirs; their proprietary features and code can remain as private as they decide. What's more, the MQX RTOS is licensed without royalties, so it offers a blend of the best of both the professional software world and the open-source world.

Compatible Products from Embedded Access

The following products enhance the MQX RTOS for more advanced applications:

• RTCS Embedded Internet Stack
• MFS FAT File System
• SFFS Flash File System
• EUSB Host Embedded USB Host Stack
• EUSB Device Embedded USB Device Stack
• PEG+ Graphics Library for MQX
• HTTP Web Servers