Azure RTOS goes open source like Eclipse ThreadX
Few days ago, Microsoft announced the news that you have made the decision to release the source code of your operating system in real time Azure RTOS along with Azure RTOS integrated development suite. The code for both is available under a permissive MIT license.
Although there are many real-time operating systems (RTOS for short) ThreadX was pretty ubiquitous, as Microsoft claims 12 billion devices run it, including consumer electronics, industrial systems, medical devices, printers, and even spacecraft.
ThreadX was originally developed by Express Logic, a company that Microsoft acquired in 2019. This acquisition came shortly after Amazon AWS took over management of FreeRTOS, another open source RTOS that uses the MIT license. Express Logic founder William Lamie subsequently launched a new company called PX5, which offers a "fifth generation" RTOS.
“By releasing Eclipse ThreadX as an open source project, we place it at the heart of a vibrant ecosystem led by the Eclipse Foundation and our industry-leading partners.
The Eclipse Foundation has also created an interest group to develop a sustainable funding model for ThreadX. Several companies, including AMD, Cypherbridge, Microsoft, NXP, PX5, Renesas, ST Microelectronics, Silicon Labs and Witekio (an Avnet company), have joined the group. The Eclipse Foundation invites more interested parties to join the discussion.
This is undoubtedly a significant move. for the world of integrated development and above all the importance that open source assumes in integrated systems. Microsoft has announced that it will make the transition by January 2024, the product will be under the auspices of the Eclipse Foundation and will take a name change and will be developed under the name Eclipse ThreadX as an independent Joint Project.
“A certified, open source RTOS with a development environment is a valuable asset. But the main advantage of existing RTOS software is not the RTOS itself, but the features of embedded development. environment (IDE) and how it integrates with OEM and ODM continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. However, with new governance and open source availability, automation industry OEMs should reconsider the potential value of ThreadX to their portfolio. «
With this move by Microsoft, The result is expected to help teams use open source alternatives that can satisfy your needs without reducing the quality of your work.
According to Microsoft, Eclipse ThreadX is the first open source RTOS that will provide:
- Mature and scalable technology
- Licensed under MIT license
- Governed by a vendor-neutral open source foundation
- Certified in functional safety and protection.
It is worth mentioning that A key aspect of ThreadX is its scalability, meaning that only the services used by an application are included in the final operating system image. In fact, thanks to its picokernel design, it can be really small, occupying just 2 KB on an ARM architecture processor. ThreadX also includes more advanced features, such as event chaining and a new programming model, known as preemption threshold programming.
Event chaining allows multiple resources to be linked based on independent events, thus allowing, for example, a thread that is suspended waiting for two or more independent resources to be activated as soon as one of them becomes available. Preemption thresholds can be assigned to tasks to improve their schedulability compared to both preemptive and non-preemptive scheduling.
Finally, it must be remembered that starting in the first quarter of 2024, the Eclipse ThreadX project will be available under the MIT license, covering ThreadX, NetX Duo, FileX, GUIX, USBX, LevelX and related tools and documentation. Microsoft is committed to supporting the project with the latest certifications to ensure the continuity of security certified versions.
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