RTCS Embedded Internet Stack

Summary

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack provides IP networking for the MQX platform. RTCS is provided with a rich assortment of TCP/IP networking application protocols and uses the MQX RTOS drivers for Ethernet or serial connectivity. RTCS is tightly integrated with the latest ColdFire and Power Architecture processors from Freescale and the MQX RTOS and MFS file system.  It is developed and supported with the CodeWarrior development tools and additional profiling and debugging capability is provided by the powerful MQX Host Tools.  RTCS is implemented in ANSI C, and full source code is provided. It’s completely re-entrant and is responsive to the demands of real-time systems. The RTCS Embedded Internet stack supports any number of hardware interfaces and any number of IP addresses on each hardware interface.

Key Features

Designed for Embedded| Small Footprint | Protocol Support | Advanced Protocols | Optimized for ColdFire and Power Architecture | CodeWarrior Integration | MQX & MFS Integration | Compatible Products

Designed for Embedded Applications

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack was specifically designed for adding TCP/IP connectivity to embedded systems.  Taking into account the limited memory and real-time response requirement of many embedded applications, the RTCS TCP/IP stack is designed to provide the fully compliant feature set of networking stacks available on PCs and servers but configurable enough to allow it to fit into the small memory confines of an embedded device. At the same time embedded system are typically powered by low-power microprocessors or microcontrollers meaning that high performance and efficiency are requried to ensure that embedded devices can the handle high volume network traffic of broadband connections. RTCS is a very efficient implementation of TCP/IP capable of zero-copy packet memory transactions and is tightly integrated with MQX RTOS device drivers for Ethernet and other network access layers. 

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack has been tested on embedded microprocessor architectures such as Freescale’s ColdFire and Power Architecture architectures.  Integration with Freescale’s CodeWarrior tools ensures a great out-of-box experience for RTCS developers using these processor architectures. 

Small Configurable Memory Footprint

RTCS is implemented as a C library. Only the features and protocols used by the application are included in the image downloaded onto the target. The RTCS TCP/IP stack can be configured to take as little as 30 KB of ROM.

RTCS Protocol Support

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack is provided with a large number of standard protocols. This allows develops to install one product that allows them to develop real TCP/IP applications without the need to acquire other application-level protocols and spend time integating them into the base TCP/IP stack. This environment creates a great out-of-box experience for embedded software developers who want to develop their software application quickly. The basic RTCS stack includes support for the following protocols:

Advanced Networking Protocols for RTCS

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack can be exteneded to support additional industry-standard protocols with other networking proucts available from Embedded Access. These networking protocol products are optimized for the speed and size requirement of embedded device applications and are proven in applications from routers to industrial controllers to set-top boxes. These optional components, designed to integrate with RTCS and the MQX RTOS, are available to meet specific connectivity requirements.

• Security Protocols:
  • SSL - Secure Socket Layer
  • SSH - Secure Shell
• Advanced Routing/Network Access Protocols:
  • NAT - Network Adress Translation
  • PPPoE - PPP over Etherent
• Embedded Web Server and E-mail Support:
  • HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
  • SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
  • POP3 - Post Office Protocol version 3
  • XML - Extensible Markup Language
• Network Management:
  • SNMPv3 - Simple Network Management Proctocol vesrion

Optimized for ColdFire and Power Architecture Processors

Embedded Access specializes in solutions for ColdFire and Power Architecture processors.  Our engineers have been working with ColdFire and Power Architecture architectures for many years.  This results in the RTCS Embedded Internet stack being specifically optimized for these platforms.  The RTCS stack has been deployed in hundreds of ColdFire and Power Architecture devices with millions of units shipped. RTCS come ready to run on the latest ColdFire and Power Architecture devices, using the Ethernet drivers that are included with the MQX RTOS BSPs for ColdFire and Power Architecture development boards.

Integrated with CodeWarrior Tools

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

For example, the MQXDebug plug-in for CodeWarrior, provides CodeWarrior users with transparent visibility of RTCS sockets, protocol statistics and other key networking information.

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.

Integrated with MQX RTOS and MFS File System

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack was designed to work with the MQX RTOS and MFS FAT file system so there are no integration issue to deal with when using the products together. RTCS uses the Ethernet or serial drivers from the MQX board support package without any modification or additional work. Adding networking to a MQX-based embedded device takes less than a day. Combining the MQX RTOS , the MFS file system and RTCS allows you to add full FTP capability to an embedded device. This allows you to upload and download files directly to an embedded device.

Business-Friendly, Royalty-Free, Source Licensing Model

The RTCS Embedded Internet stack is licensed and delivered with full source code, so there are no mysteries about how the RTCS stack operates. The simple RTCS licensing terms ensures there are no legal ambiguities. RTCS 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 RTCS Embedded Internet stack 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:

• MQX RTOS
• 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