Freescale: Overview of Freescale MQX™︎ Software Solutions

atomar — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 22:56:08 GMT

Current Revision posted to Documents by atomar on 6/24/2014 10:56:08 PM

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

Key Features

Production quality code delivered in source
Business-friendly licensing model
A straight forward application programming interface (API) with a modular, component-based architecture
Designed to be customized by features, size and speed with only 8 required core components and additional optional components that can be leveraged as needed.
Full and lightweight components available
Supports inter-processor communication
Freescale MQX Design and Development Tools. Ready-to-run project files and task aware debugging tools are available to enabling quick development.
Get started in minutes. Leverage Board Support Package (BSP), demos and labs tutorials right out of the box.
Your own team of MQX experts. Have questions or need hands-on technical support? Numerous resources are available for help and support including the Freescale MQX RTOS Community and MQX Level 2 Support packages.
Full-feature middleware: USB host/device stack with personal health care device class (PHDC), RTCS communication suite and file system.

Technical Specifications

Small code density – The Freescale MQX RTOS can be configured to take as little as 8 KB of ROM and 2.5K RAM on ARM Cortex M4, including kernel, 2 task applications,1 LW Semaphore, interrupt stack, queues, and memory manager.
Component-based architecture – Provides a fully-functional RTOS core with additional, optional services. Components are linked in only if needed, preventing unused functions from bloating the memory footprint.
Full and lightweight components – Key components are included in both full and lightweight versions for further control of size, RAM/ROM utilization and performance options.
Real-time, Priority-based preemptive, multithreading – Priority-based preemptive scheduling allows high-priority threads to meet their deadlines consistently, no matter how many other threads are competing for CPU time.
Optimized for Freescale architecture – Optimized assembly code to accelerates key real-time portions of the RTOS such as context switching.
Scheduling – Freescale MQX RTOS provides the developer faster development time by relieving engineers from create or maintain an efficient scheduling system and interrupt handling. It is also significantly useful if one requires the use of multiple communication protocols like USB or TCP/IP.
Code Reuse – Freescale MQX RTOS provides a framework with a simple API to build and organize the features across Freescales broad portfolio of embedded processors.
Intuitive API – Writing code for Freescale MQX RTOS is straight forward with a complete API and available reference documentation.
Fast boot sequence – A fast boot sequence ensures the application is running quickly after the hardware has been reset
Simple Message Passing – Messages can be easily passed between tasks running on the same CPU or even a different CPU in the system.

Supported Devices

A full list of supported devices sorted by MQX version can be found in the MQX Fact Sheet.

Product Name	Product ID
Flexis™ 32-bit ColdFire® V1 Microcontrollers	MCF51AC
32-bit ColdFire® V1 Microcontrollers	MCF51CN128
MCF51EM256MCF51EM256 32-bit MCU for Smart Meter Applications	MCF51EM
Flexis 32-bit V1 ColdFire® USB Microcontroller	MCF51JM
One-Stop-Shop Connectivity 32-bit Microcontrollers	MCF5225X
Integrated ColdFire V2 Ethernet Microcontrollers	MCF5223X
32-bits Microcontrollers with USB	MCF5222X
V2 Microcontroller with Touchscreen, LCD Controller and USB	MCF5227X
32-bit Microprocessor with USB On-The-Go, Ethernet, PCI, DDR2/DDR controller and Encryption	MCF5445X
32-bit microprocessor	MPC5125
Flexis™ 32-bit ColdFire® V1 Microcontrollers	MCF51MM
Integrated ColdFire V2 External Memory and Ethernet Microprocessors	MCF520X
Power Architecture MCU, 64 MHz, Integrated Display	PXD10
Power Architecture MCU, 116 MHz, Dual-Core, Networking	PXN20
Power Architecture MCU, 264 MHz, 4 MB On-Chip Flash, Quad ADCs	PXR40
Functional Safety MCU module	PXS20
ColdFire+ Qx Family	MCF51Qx
ColdFire+ Jx family	MCF51Jx
Power Architecture Safety MCU, 180 MHz, Dual-Locking Core, 2MB On-Chip Flash	PXS30
Kinetis K10 Baseline 50 MHz MCUs	K10_50
Kinetis K10 Baseline 100 MHz MCUs	K10_100
Kinetis K10 Baseline 120 MHz MCUs	K10_120
Kinetis K20 USB 50 MHz MCUs	K20_50
Kinetis K20 USB 100 MHz MCUs	K20_100
Kinetis K20 USB 120 MHz MCUs	K20_120
Kinetis K30 Segment LCD 100 MHz MCUs	K30_100
Kinetis K40 USB and Segment LCD 100 MHz MCUs	K40_100
Kinetis K60 Ethernet Crypto 100 MHz MCUs	K60_100
Kinetis K60 Ethernet Crypto 120/150 MHz MCUs	K60_120
Vybrid VF3xx Single-chip Solution with Dual XiP Quad SPI, Dual Ethernet and L2 Switch	VF3xx
Vybrid VF5xx Single-core Solution with Dual Ethernet and L2 Switch	VF5xx
Vybrid VF6xx Dual Heterogeneous Core Solution with XGA Display, Dual USB, Dual Ethernet and L2 Switch	VF6xx
Advanced Industrial Display MCU	PXD20

Video

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www.youtube.com/watch	www.youtube.com/watch

Video 1

Video 2

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Technical Documents

Learning Center

Type	Description
User Guide	Freescale: User Guide for Freescale MQX RTOS
User Guide	Freescale: User Guide for Freescale MQX™ USB Host
User Guide	Freescale: User Guide for Freescale MQX™ MFS
User Guide	Freescale: User Guide for Freescale MQX™ I/O Drivers
Quick Start Guide	Freescale: Getting Started with the Freescale MQX™ RTOS
Support User Guide	Freescale: Support User Guide For Freescale MQX™ RTOS
Fact Sheet	Freescale: Fact Sheet for Freescale MQX™ Software Solutions
Application Note	Freescale: Application Note on Using Freescale MQX Libraries

Design Elements

Type	Description
Application Library	Freescale: AN4346 - Designing a Working Prototype using MQX™ RTOS and Tower System for Kinetis Microcontrollers
Application Library	Freescale: AN4022 - IP Camera and USB Snapshot with Freescale MQX RTOS
Application Library	Freescale: AN4417 - MCU control and monitor with Twitter