Costa Mesa, California, August 8, 2014 – Micro Digital is pleased to announce Free SMX Learning Kits, for non-commercial use, available at www.smxrtos.com/lk
Computer Science schools in the U.S. have been neglecting to teach the basic skills needed for embedded systems and RTOS programming. Instead, their graduates’ experience is mostly limited to Linux. Although good for many things, Linux is not the tool best suited to moderate-size embedded systems with hard real-time and small size requirements. Using an RTOS is much simpler and produces better results.
With the coming of IoT, the shortage of skilled RTOS programmers will only get worse.
SMX is one of a few RTOSes that have been available for over two decades. It has met the test of time. In recent years we have been making significant improvements to the smx kernel, rewriting the manuals, and creating an extensive library of good examples, called esmx. smx is now very capable and small, making it ideal for moderate-size embedded products, with tight cost and performance constraints.
In view of the growing shortage of skilled RTOS programmers, we have recognized that smx is an ideal RTOS learning tool. The examples in esmx actually run and programmers can step through them and also make experimental modifications, while reading related descriptions in the tutorial smx User’s Guide. The debugger with the smxAware plug-in provide a good view of what is happening.
In consideration of the foregoing, we are pleased to announce the release of Free SMX Learning Kits (L-Kits) for non-commercial purposes such as RTOS study, class projects, system prototypes, experimentation, etc. L-Kits are fully functional versions of smx that run on ultra-low-cost boards popular in the DIY / maker community, from vendors such as STMicro and TI. They are tightly integrated with the easy-to-use and powerful IAR EWARM development suite and include all of the necessary BSP code, project files, etc. to build and run out of the box. A free, size-limited version of EWARM is available from IAR.
L-Kits also include the User’s Guide and Reference Manual, at no charge, as well as a small application and esmx source code, which runs with it. One can easily step through each example to learn how it and the related smx services work. smx is designed with structures and enums in a way that promotes clear understanding of what is happening in the debugger watch window.
“SMX L-Kits are offered as a service to the embedded community. There is no time limit on their use, and users will not be contacted by sales personnel. This is a unique opportunity to investigate what a full-featured, innovative RTOS can do,” said Ralph Moore, smx Architect. “I hope that developers and students will enjoy using L-Kits and learn valuable skills from them.
SMX L-Kits are available now, at no charge, from www.smxrtos.com/lk.
About SMX
The focus of SMX is to provide superior capabilities, support, and reliablilty to enable application developers to produce reliable, cost-effective products, on time. The smx kernel implements a host of features for this purpose that are not found on free generic alternatives. The SMX RTOS includes extensive middleware in order to provide fully integrated solutions that do not require piecing together software from many sources. SMX also includes BSP code and project files that provide out-of-the-box startup, in order to not waste valuable project time getting started. Taken together these features result in lower project cost, less development time, and better products than do free alternatives.
Micro Digital, Inc. has been in the embedded systems business for 38 years and has been producing and selling embedded software products for 25 years. Micro Digital is dedicated to providing quality products and support for embedded systems at moderate prices. We may be contacted at 1-800-366-2491 or sales@smxrtos.com.
