Lauterbach released information that its TRACE32 development tools now collaborate with the PX5 RTOS. Support includes access to the PX5 RTOS internal structures and data allowing a better definition of chip resources for seamless design management.

Functional safety is no longer a “nice to have” or “should have” in many applications, having moved to “must have” in spaces like automotive, industrial automation, medical devices, and aviation. Passing the functional safety testing process can be rigorous, especially if you’re going through it for the first time. But even the best experts take at least six months to get software certified. 

To understand exactly what functional safety is, what the testing process is like, and how and when a developer should get started, I spoke to Bill Lamie, the President and CEO of PX5 RTOS, and someone who’s been through the rigors of functional safety testing on this week’s Embedded Executives podcast.

The origin of the phrase “penny wise and pound foolish” comes from the 1621 work The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton. The idea behind this phrase is that we sometimes concentrate so hard on small costs that we can overlook larger opportunities to reduce costs or increase gains. This mindset has beset embedded development for quite some time and continues to do so.

Safety-critical, real-time systems today — such as automotive, IoT, industrial, mobile, and other MCU-based devices — necessitate a high level of security and protection, and the ability to perform predictable and deterministic functions within a secure environment that can manage various components at once.

San Diego, California. PX5 is adding more security of its real-time operating systems (RTOS), and middleware, by integrating Arm TrustZone technology in its advanced PX5 RTOS for a a boost in security from hardware to code. Designers get secured reliability assurance down to the physical level. “With MCU-based products at the core of our daily lives, from automotive components to industrial shop floors, it is imperative for manufacturers to address cybersecurity risks from the hardware up,” said William Lamie, CEO, PX5.

If you’ve been in the embedded space for any length of time, you’re likely familiar with the ThreadX real-time operating system, which was a product of Express Logic. That company was acquired by Microsoft, and its President, Bill Lamie, went along with the team to Microsoft…until now.

Västerås, Sweden, Percepio AB is supporting the release of the fifth-generation RTOS, the PX5. The PX5 RTOS operated on a native implementation of the standard POSIX pThreads API. It will embed the Percepio Tracealyzer 4.6 trace recorder with Percepio supporting the PX5 RTOS with a commercially accessible solution.