Imagination Technologies and Express Logic partner to expand already broad ThreadX RTOS support for MIPS CPUs

ThreadX/SMP now available for multi-threaded MIPS interAptiv cores

London, UK – 5 December, 2013 – Imagination Technologies (IMG.L) and Express Logic announce expanded support of Express Logic’s popular ThreadX® RTOS (real time operating system) for Imagination’s MIPS CPUs. Adoption of the MIPS interAptiv CPU extends ThreadX support of multiple generations of MIPS CPUs, which range from deeply embedded cores to high-performance applications processors. To provide support for the interAptiv family of multi-threaded multicore CPUs, Express Logic worked closely with Imagination and its partners to add new features to the ThreadX/SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) RTOS that enable it to support all multi-threaded MIPS cores.

Imagination’s unique multi-threaded MIPS cores, including the latest generation interAptiv family, are used by a broad range of companies to achieve better overall throughput, quality of service (QoS), and power/performance efficiency than competitors can provide across applications including baseband processing, internet of things (IoT), networking, storage, automotive, and more.

Says Amit Rohatgi, vice president of strategic marketing, Imagination: “Hardware multi-threading is a highly advantageous technology that works particularly well in real-time embedded environments. In fact, multi-threading was one of the original key synergies that Imagination recognized in MIPS cores. We are delighted to extend our partnership with Express Logic, a long-time supporter of MIPS, to bring ThreadX support to these advanced cores. As Imagination continues to roll out its new MIPS Series5 Warrior CPU cores, we will work together to bring ThreadX support to future MIPS cores.”

Says William E. Lamie, president, Express Logic: “Customers looking for a compact and fast operating system for the MIPS architecture can rely on our ThreadX and ThreadX/SMP RTOSes to provide the performance and features they need to succeed in their markets. Together, ThreadX/SMP and interAptiv provide system developers with a combination of performance efficiency and ease-of-use to speed their time to market. We look forward to continuing to provide customers with the best possible RTOS performance on multicore, multi-threaded MIPS-based processors.”

ThreadX/SMP for multi-threaded MIPS interAptiv cores
ThreadX is a small-footprint, royalty-free, source code RTOS for SoCs and other resource-constrained devices across a broad range of electronic products. ThreadX/SMP, originally developed by Express Logic in cooperation with MIPS, is an enhanced version of ThreadX that provides synchronous multicore support for real-time responsiveness. For interAptiv, ThreadX/SMP lets developers take advantage of the significant benefits of sharing the processing load over the CPU’s multiple threads and cores while retaining the real-time responsiveness critical to demanding embedded applications.

ThreadX/SMP achieves a high degree of ease-of-use by enabling multicore applications to be developed without needing to know the details of the underlying architecture. ThreadX/SMP efficiently allocates and manages powerful hardware resources to maximize application thread efficiency. ThreadX/SMP transparently maps application threads to individual cores within the MIPS CPU, providing automatic load balancing. The low overhead of ThreadX produces an efficient thread-to-core allocation and assignment—a feat that can be difficult for larger RTOSes to achieve, especially when there are more threads than cores.

Availability
ThreadX/SMP for interAptiv cores is available from Express Logic. For information about ThreadX support for MIPS, visit http://rtos.com/products/threadx/MIPS or contact sales@expresslogic.com.

About Express Logic
Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX® RTOS, the high-performance NetX™ TCP/IP stack, the FileX™ embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, and the USBX™ Host/Device USB protocol stack. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit the Web site at http://www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquiries to sales@expresslogic.com.

About Imagination Technologies
Imagination Technologies - a global leader in multimedia, processor, communication and cloud technologies - creates and licenses market-leading processor solutions including graphics, video, vision, CPU and embedded processing, multi-standard communications, cross-platform V.VoIP and VoLTE and cloud connectivity. These silicon and software intellectual property (IP) solutions for systems-on-chip (SoC) are complemented by an extensive portfolio of software, tools and ecosystems. Target markets include mobile phone, connected home consumer, mobile and tablet computing, in-car electronics, networking, telecoms, health, smart energy and connected sensors. Imagination’s licensees include many of the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers, network operators and OEM/ODMs. Corporate headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with sales and R&D offices worldwide. See: www.imgtec.com.