FreeRTOS News
[About FreeRTOS]

Latest news snippets:

• A generic Cortex-M3 edition of the FreeRTOS eBook has been launched.
• FreeRTOS is delighted to announce participation in the new IAR partner program.
• An interview with Richard Barry has been published in Electronics Weekly.
• Richard Barry is guest editor for Embedded.com.
• FreeRTOS comes top in embedded.com survey (see last paragraph in link)!
• FreeRTOS Interactive has been launched. The first part of its roll out allows users to both upload and download individual user contributed projects. User contributed projects have therefore been removed from the main FreeRTOS download, which is now at version 6.0.4. This permits the official (and supported) FreeRTOS download to significantly decrease in size. V6.0.4 also contains the first Energy Micro EFM32 demo application.
• FreeRTOS now supports the SuperH from Renesas - complete with embedded web server demo application for the SH7216.
• A new Cortex M3 / LPC17xx edition of the FreeRTOS eBook "Using The FreeRTOS Real Time Kernel - A Practical Guide" has been released.
• FreeRTOS V6.0.0, the first version to integrate memory protection support, is now available for free download. See the press release for an overview.
• Microchip publish an application note showing how to integrate their libraries and stacks with FreeRTOS.
• FreeRTOS V5.4.2 is now available and includes the first official port and demo application targeting the Nios II soft core from Altera.
• Fujitsu launch new FreeRTOS development kits.
• FreeRTOS will have a stand and be presenting at this years Microchip Masters conference.
• FreeRTOS V5.4.0 Now Available: - Improved byte alignment support plus new demos for NXP LPC1768 and Xilinx/PowerPC 440 processors.
• FreeRTOS V5.3.1 Now Available: - adds WEB server demos for both the STM32F107 Cortex M3 Connectivity Line and the MCF51cn128 ColdFire V1 microcontrollers.
• FreeRTOS.org^tm V5.3.0 Now Available: Adds Atmel SAM3 and NXP LPC1700 Cortex M3 demos plus introduces the new Run Time Stats feature.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.2.0 Now Available: With a new faster queue and semaphore implementation. V5.2.0 is completely backward compatible with previous 5.x.x releases.
• New FreeRTOS documentation available - "Using the FreeRTOS Real Time Kernel, a Practical Guide" eBook.
• Martina Hafner interviews Richard Barry at the ESE Congress (interview is in English).
• SafeRTOS is short-listed for "embedded systems product of the year" at the 2008 Elektra awards.
• The FreeRTOS.org kernel aware Eclipse plug-in is demonstrated on the Freescale stand at this years Electronica trade fare.

FreeRTOS.org, OpenRTOS and SafeRTOS in the news:

• WITTENSTEIN announce OpenRTOS Connect a set of USB Device, USB Host and File System components for FreeRTOS and OpenRTOS.
• WITTENSTEIN announce SafeRTOS for Cortex M3
• NEC announce FreeRTOS support for both their 16 and 32 bit devices.
• Red Suite V1.6.2 released - including FreeRTOS.org kernel aware plug-in.
• Code Red announce Code Suite - a new Eclipse based IDE that includes a FreeRTOS.org wizard.
• Fujitsu announce their support for the FreeRTOS.org suite of products.
• Elektronik Praxis article on using Eclipse with FreeRTOS.org and OpenOCD. An English version is also available in pdf format.
• Feature article published describing the compiler verification technique used during the development of SafeRTOS.
• Embedded Systems Design Europe discusses FreeRTOS.org in its editorial, and includes a news item.
• EDN reports on IEC 61508 certification for SafeRTOS.
• Elektronik Praxis reports on availability of support packages.
• ETN - something in Swedish. I hope it only says good things!
• [1] [2] Embedded Control Europe report on the announcements of SafeRTOS and OpenRTOS respectively.

Other / Older news:

• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.1.2 Now Available: With new ports and demos - including NEC V850ES, NEC 78K0R and AT91SAM9XE.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.1.1 Now Available: Includes a new GCC and Eclipse based embedded WEB server demo for the ColdFire MCF52233.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.1.0 Now Available:
  New ports include ColdFire V2 using CodeWarrior and ARM7 LPC2129 using Keil/RVDS. MSP430 ports now fully support low power modes.
• The MPLAB IDE now includes a kernel aware FreeRTOS state viewer for PIC32, PIC24 and dsPIC as standard.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.0.4 Now Available:
  The ColdFire V2 port has been completely re-written and now comes with a new Eclipse based GCC demo application.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.0.3 Now Available:
  Highlights include an upgrade to the Cortex M3 port functionality, and the inclusion of user contributed projects (listed under 'unsupported' in the download).
• Quantum Leaps release QDK^TM for FreeRTOS.org.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.0.2 Now Available:
  Highlights include: A major upgrade to the Microchip PIC32 port functionality, and new RTOS support for the Xilinx PowerPC floating point unit (FPU).
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V5.0.0 Now Available:
  
  • Improves the queue and semaphore interrupt safe API - please see Upgrading to V5.0.0 for important upgrade information.
  • Adds support for the latest LM3S3768 and LM3S3748 microcontrollers from Luminary Micro.
  • Virtex4 PowerPC demo upgraded to use V10.1 of the Xilinx EDK.
  • Adds new task hook functionality.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.8.0 Now Available:
  Includes new stack overflow checking features plus some new API functions.
• Masters 2008:
  For the second year running, FreeRTOS.org will be presenting RTOS training classes at the Microchip Masters worldwide conference in Phoenix, Az.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.7.2 Now Available:
  Adds two new ports - both for Fujitsu microcontrollers. The first is for the 32bit MB91460 series, and the second for the 16bit MB96340 (16FX) series.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.7.1 Now Available:
  Adds new recursive semaphore feature and updates all IAR ARM ports to use the IAR Embedded Workbench V5.11 project format.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.7.0 Now Available:
  Adds new counting semaphore macros, an alternative queue API, and includes the SAM7X Eclipse and STM32 Primer demos within the main .zip file download.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.6.1 now available:
  Adds a port and demo application for Microchips brand new high performance 32bit microcontroller family, the PIC32. Based on a MIPS M4K core. Read the press release here.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.6.0 now available: The method used to cause a context switch within an ISR has changed for ARM7/9 GCC ports only. This unfortunately is not backward compatible with the old method, but does mean no further changes will be required in the future. See the "RTOS Configuration and Usage Details" section of the documentation page relevant to your port for full instructions. All the ARM7 GCC demo applications have also been updated to demonstrate the new method.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.5.0 now available: See the version history for full information. Highlights include:
  
  • Extended queue API.
  • Introduction of mutexes (priority inheritance mechanism for the existing binary semaphore implementation).
  • Demo applications for the new LM3S1962 and LM3S8962 evaluation kits from Luminary Micro.
  • Pre-configured Eclipse Europa projects for ARM7 and Cortex-M3 using OpenOCD - with step by step setup instructions.
  • Improved Cortex-M3 context switching code.
  • lwIP demo for the STR912.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.4.0 now available: Updates the AVR32 UC3A ports, adds a port for the AVR32 UC3B, and includes some kernel improvements.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.3.1 now available: V4.3.1 adds a demo application for the STMicroelectronics STM32 Cortex-M3 microcontroller - reinforcing FreeRTOS.org's position as the choice for the Cortex-M3 core.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.3.0 now available: V4.3.0 includes demo applications for the new Ethernet and CAN enabled ARM Cortex-M3 processors from Luminary Micro. In addition the Cortex-M3, PIC24 and dsPIC DSC ports have been updated to demonstrate a more flexible interrupt management scheme.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.2.1 now available: V4.2.1 introduces the AT32UC3A AVR32 port and demo applications. Ports and demo applications are provided for both the GCC and IAR development tools. Embedded TCP/IP examples are also provided for GCC.
• New LPC2368 demo: Includes a embedded WEB server demo based on the uIP TCP/IP stack.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.2.0 now available: V4.2.0 includes some modifications to the kernel that are a direct output of the SafeRTOS development. V4.2.0 also extends support for the Luminary Micro Cortex-M3 based LM3S811 evaluation board, with Keil, IAR and GCC demos now included.

• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.1.3 now available: Includes new ports and demos for:
  • Microchip PIC24
  • Microchip dsPIC^® DCS
  • STMicroelectronics STR750 (ARM7) with IAR tools
  • STMicroelectronics STR750 (ARM7) with RIDE tools
  
  The latest ColdFire files are also now included in the zip file download.

• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.1.1 now available: Adds a demo for the Luminary Micro LM3S811 Evalutaion Kit.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.1.0 now available: Improves functionality for message queues.
• New demo added: For the Rowley CrossFire LPC2138 ARM7 embedded evaluation board.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.0.4 now available: Introduces an STR9 ARM9 port with embedded WEB server demo.
• FreeRTOS.org^TM V4.0.3 now available: Adds IAR support for ARM Cortex-M3.
• New support packages: Professional development and support packages are now available.

The FreeRTOS.org V4.x.x download includes pre-configured demo applications for Luminary Micros new ARM Cortex-M3 based LM3S102 embedded microcontroller. The LM3S10x was the first commercially available Cortex-M3 microcontroller, and FreeRTOS.org was the first Cortex-M3 real time kernel available for production silicon! See the press release here.

In addition FreeRTOS.org V4.0.0 introduces co-routines - a new feature especially suited to RAM constrained embedded systems.