Enea OSE Epsilon Real-Time Operating System Available for ARM Cortex-M3 Processors
Stockholm, Sweden, December 16, 2008 – Enea® (Nordic Exchange/Small Cap/ENEA), a world leading provider of network software and services, today announced the availability of its Enea OSE® Epsilon real-time operating system for the ARM® Cortex(TM)-M3 embedded processor. The OSE Epsilon RTOS provides an ideal platform for developing and deploying scalable, compact, ultra-reliable applications targeting low-cost network systems based on ARM Cortex-M3 processors.
"The Cortex-M3's ability to deliver 32-bit CPU performance with microcontroller efficiency makes it a natural for cost-sensitive, deeply embedded wireless communications equipment," said Terry Pearson, vice president of marketing for Enea. "OSE Epsilon's compact footprint, nimble interrupt response, intuitive API, and upward compatibility with other OSE family members make it a perfect fit for the Cortex-M3, particularly for applications that place a premium on reliability, efficiency and scalability."
The ARM Cortex-M3 is a 32-bit RISC core optimized for low-cost, small-footprint wireless networking applications. The high-performance core, featuring single-cycle multiply and divide, delivers a peak performance of 1.25 DMIPS/MHz with exceptional interrupt response and code density. The Cortex-M3 implements the Thumb-2 instruction set and provides advanced features such as aligned data storage and atomic bit manipulation. Together, these capabilities enable the Cortex-M3 to deliver 32-bit performance at a cost comparable to 8- and 16-bit processors.
Enea OSE Epsilon is a fast, small, low-cost RTOS optimized for deeply embedded microcontroller applications. The fully pre-emptive real-time kernel, written entirely in assembler, provides efficient system calls that reduce application code size, and occupies just 4 kbytes of memory in a minimal configuration. OSE Epsilon features built-in error handling that enhances end-product robustness and reliability. It is also available with a crash-safe flash file system and a suite of basic networking protocols, including TCP, UDP, IP, ICMP, ARP, Proxy-ARP, RARP, PPP, Web Server, DNS and DHCP.
OSE Epsilon speeds application development by combining simple yet powerful system calls with high-performance interprocess communications services. In fact, with just six simple system calls, most designers will have all they need to write the bulk of their application. OSE Epsilon's high level of abstraction, coupled with its simple, powerful API, also reduces the size and complexity of the application code, and makes programs easier to maintain, read and understand. OSE Epsilon implements a subset of the full-featured OSE API. This makes it easy for customers to upgrade from OSE Epsilon to other members of the OSE RTOS family with few if any application code changes.
Like all members of the OSE family of RTOSes, OSE Epsilon employs a simple, intuitive message passing programming model that makes it easy to break complex, distributed applications into simpler concurrent processes, each communicating via a high-speed, transparent, direct message passing protocol. This high level of abstraction makes complex applications easy to conceptualize, model, partition, and debug. It also separates applications from the details of the underlying hardware, making the resulting code more scalable and easy to migrate.