FreeRTOS upgraded to version 7.0
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A leading microcontroller operating system has been upgraded to version 7.0 and is available for immediate free download.
FreeRTOS version 7.0 comes with a new software timer implementation, which allows timer callbacks to be executed in a task context, rather than an interrupt context. This does not consume any processing time nor generate any run time overhead, unless a timer has expired.
The FreeRTOS Seven kernel is fully backward compatible with previous generations and users who upgrade will not need to change any code. Upgrading from version 6.x is as claimed to be as simple as dropping the new kernel source files into a project. The OS is also said to benefit from improved performance and two new demonstration projects have bee added.
The list of official ports has been expanded to 52 with the addition of a port to Texas Instruments' MSP430X MCU Code Composer Studio port. The ports address 27 mcu architectures and each port includes a documented preconfigured example application.
The portable, open source and royalty free mini real time kernel is free to both download and 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.
According to the developer, the OS has been downloaded more than 150,000 times during 2009/2010, making it one of the most widely downloaded and used rtos.
