- Industry’s favourite real time MCU kernel delivers new software timer implementation, kernel enhancements for improved performance and additional ports
- Complete backward compatibility with V6.x for easy upgrade
FreeRTOS version 7.0 has been announced by Real Time Engineers Ltd. The upgrade to the leading real time MCU operating system is available for immediate free download from FreeRTOS.org.
Version 7.0 comes with a new software timer implementation. This allows timer callbacks to be executed in a task context, rather than an interrupt context, and does not consume any processing time or generate any run time overhead unless a timer has actually expired.
FreeRTOS Seven also benefits from improved performance and two new demonstration projects. The kernel is fully backward compatible with the previous generation, and users who upgrade will not need to change any of their own code. Upgrading from version 6.x is as simple as dropping the new kernel source files into your project.
A Texas Instruments MSP430X MCU Code Composer Studio port has been added, taking the list of official ports to 52; across 27 MCU architectures. Each official port includes a documented pre-configured example application, demonstrating the kernel features to speed learning and enable out of the box development.
The OS is a portable, open source, royalty free, mini real time kernel, which is free to both download and deploy. It can be used in commercial applications and does not require proprietary source code to be exposed.
A commercial license and support upgrade path is also provided by High Integrity Systems, the global engineering partner company behind OpenRTOS licensing and support, and the safety critical MCU operating system SafeRTOS.
Downloaded more than 150,000 times during 2009/2010, FreeRTOS is amongst the most widely downloaded and used real time operating systems. In March 2010 it topped a list of the industry’s favourite RTOS kernels (pbli.tk/RTOSsurvey); compiled from an independent survey of embedded engineers asked to select the operating systems being considered for use. The results of the 2011 survey will also be announced at ESC San Jose.
About FreeRTOS
FreeRTOSTM is an open source embedded RTOS with implementations on more than 27 embedded architectures. In existence for more than 8 years, its popularity has grown tremendously and it has reached a download rate of more than 7000 per month, making it one of the most widely used embedded operating systems in the world. The license allows users to deploy applications without publishing their proprietary application code. It can be freely downloaded from http://www.FreeRTOS.org
