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AVIX, The RTOS for Microchip Microcontrollers
AVIX, The RTOS for Microchip Microcontrollers that Redefines ‘REAL-TIME’
AVIX is a Real Time Operating System for 16 and 32 bit Microchip(tm) microcontrollers (PIC24, dsPIC(tm) and PIC32), which never disables interrupts, saves up to 30% of RAM and delivers independently proven "best-in-class" speed ratings. Because of its unique capabilities and incredible performance, AVIX is a true general purpose RTOS suitable to be used in virtually any application domain.
In its latest revision, version 3.5, AVIX offers additional functionality that ensures that the energy preserving capabilities of the microcontroller is fully utilised. Obviously reduced energy consumption is essential for battery powered equipment but the user-friendly and efficient way AVIX 3.5 RTOS can be used makes the latest revision just as advantageous in an embedded system powered by a conventional power supply. AVIX 3.5 makes it easier than ever before to reduce the power consumption of the embedded system.
Provides the code to program the microcontroller’s power mode
In contrast to competing RTOSs, AVIX 3.5 provides the code to program and manage the microcontroller’s power mode usage of the micro controller’s power management capabilities, making it very easy to deploy. For basic power management, one single function call is all that is needed to reduce the energy consumption of the system. Competing RTOSs force the engineer to write the code to deploy the micro controllers power management capabilities since they provide nothing more than a ‘hook’ that enables an application specific function to be called when the idle thread is active. This approach leaves the often cumbersome programming of the required power mode to the application.
Solves the race condition related to idle thread based power management
An AVIX 3.5 implementation is not compromised by a serious race condition present in most competing products. An interrupt can sometimes occur just before one of the power reduction modes is selected, invalidating activity of the selected power mode. With most competing implementations the interrupt has no way of preventing entry into the power mode and the application therefore enters an invalid power mode. With AVIX 3.5, the engineer remains in full control and even when an interrupt occurs even in the instruction immediately before the power mode is effected, the interrupt is capable of selecting an alternative power mode. As a result, the AVIX 3.5 implementation leaves the engineer fully in control and no unexpected behavior will occur.
When not implementing a sophisticated energy saving algorithm, the basic functionality offered by AVIX 3.5 allows it to select a desired energy saving mode with a single function call. Every time the idle thread is active, AVIX will effect the selected mode until this mode is left again on the first interrupt that occurs. This basic approach already allows a substantial amount of energy saving without constructing a custom application specific mechanism
Power management efficiency joins the key advantages already present in previous versions of the AVIX RTOS:
Integrating interrupt handlers in an application is easier and faster than with any competing product. Writing an interrupt handler and making it communicate with the application is as easy as writing any C function. But even more important, AVIX never disables interrupts, not for a single cycle, leading to a predictable and reliable system.
RAM usage is amongst the lowest in the industry. AVIX offers a system wide interrupt stack which is shared by all interrupt handlers. As a result, interrupt handlers do no longer use the stacks of individual threads. On an average application running on a PIC32 this can save you as much as 30% of RAM compared with competing products.
AVIX is fast, very fast, as proven by delivering top scores in the independent open source Thread-Metric performance benchmark.
The result of these tests comparing AVIX against five competing products is shown below.
For more information see: http://www.avix-rt.com or order the products online here
