FreeRTOS 6.1 unveiled

•    Industry’s favourite real time kernel for microcontrollers enhances functionality
•    Adds comprehensive support for the new Renesas RX62N.
•    To be demonstrated running on RX62N MCUs at Renesas DevCon.

The release of FreeRTOS version 6.1 has been announced today by Real Time Engineers Ltd.

The first public demonstration of it in action will be at the Renesas DevCon on the 11th October, where Renesas will present a FreeRTOS training course. This follows three new ports being created for Renesas’ new RX62N microcontrollers. The RX62N also launch at the Renesas DevCon.

Enhancements to this latest version of the small efficient kernel include support to enable tasks to be created in the suspended state, and a new API function to allow access to the tick count value from the ISR (interrupt service routine) – and in so doing help maintain kernel data hiding.

FreeRTOS is amongst the most widely downloaded and used real time operating systems. In March 2010 it was declared the industry’s favourite (bit.ly/duBJTt) by an independent survey of embedded engineers asked to select all of the operating systems being considered for use.

The OS is a portable, open source, royalty free, mini real time kernel which is both free to download and free to 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, a global engineering partner company with a distinguished history dating back more than 60 years.

During 2009 FreeRTOS was downloaded more than 77,500 times. It now boasts over 50 ports and supports 26 architectures.

Richard Barry, director of Real Time Engineers Ltd., said: “We’re delighted to be given the opportunity to work closely with Renesas on the development of these new ports. I’m confident that supporting what is an excellent architecture will allow FreeRTOS usage to continue growing at its current rapid rate.”

About FreeRTOS

FreeRTOS™ is an open source embedded RTOS with implementations on more than 26 embedded architectures. In existence for more than 7 years, its popularity has grown tremendously and it has recently 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 modified GPL license allows users to deploy applications without publishing their proprietary application code. It can be freely downloaded from www.FreeRTOS.org <http://www.FreeRTOS.org>