Freescale: Overview of Freescale MQX™︎ Software Solutions

Overview

Freescale streamlines embedded design with MQX, a complimentary real-time operating system (RTOS) complete with USB, Ethernet, and file system stacks. The entire source code for both the kernel and stacks is available, making it highly configurable for your specific application. It has been available on Freescale processors for over 15 years, and can be found in millions of embedded devices due to its flexible nature and advanced features.

With its many examples, extensive out-of-box applications, tutorials, and documentation, first-time RTOS users can start developing their applications from day one. For experienced RTOS developers, it’s easy to migrate legacy application code to a Freescale MQX-based platform via its easy-to-use API and POSIX compatible drivers.

MQX is tightly integrated with the latest Kinetis processors from Freescale and provides dozens of device drivers as part of its extensive BSP support. Powerful design and development tools are also integrated with many commonly used IDEs to provide additional profiling and debugging capabilities. The Freescale MQX RTOS was designed to have a modern, component-based microkernel architecture allowing for customization by feature, size, and speed by selecting the components engineers wish to include while meeting the tight memory constraints of embedded systems.

The Freescale MQX RTOS includes a multitasking kernel with pre-emptive scheduling and fast interrupt response, which enables fast, highly predictable response times. It also has extensive inter-process communication and synchronization facilities. Its small, configurable size conserves memory space for embedded applications and can be configured as little as 6 KB of ROM, including kernel, interrupts, semaphores, queues and memory manager. MQX RTOS also includes a TCP/IP stack (RTCS), embedded MS-DOS file system (MFS), USB host/device stack with personal health care device class (PHDC), as well as task-aware debugging. There is also an IPv6 Ethernet stack (RTCS) available. Complete source code and documentation is provided for the kernel and stacks, and there are support options available for those who desire professional software services.

MQX is available on a number of platforms, including Kinetis (ARM Cortex-M4 and Cortex-M0+), ColdFire and Power Architecture. All the code and examples can be downloaded from freescale.com/mqx.

MQX-Lite
There is also a light-weight version of MQX called MQX-Lite. Initially developed for the Kinetis L Series family, it allows applications to run with less than 4 KB RAM. It is a true subset of MQX, allowing for easy upward code migration. It is packaged as a Processor Expert component, allowing for easy configuration and implementation.

Certifiable to Medical and Aerospace Standards
Even if your application does not require formal certification, the robustness of the MQX RTOS helps provide a rock-solid platform proven in thousands of time-critical, sophisticated applications. For those who must follow a formal certification process, the MQX RTOS platform has a record of past certifications in medical specifications (CFR 820.30 Part 21, IEC 60601-1) and the aerospace requirements listed under DO-178b. Safety critical applications based on MQX RTOS include eye surgery equipment, drug injection equipment, radiation dose monitoring equipment, aircraft braking systems and aircraft navigation equipment.

More Resources
	Freescale: CodeWarrior IDE Development Suite		Freecale Development Kits
	Operating Systems and Stacks		element14 Knode