MIPS family of cores earns real-time kernel for consumer apps

A scalable and royalty-free real-time kernel from Accelerated Technology and tailored for MIPS Technologies Inc.'s MIPS32 24K family of processor cores aims to help developers of high-performance digital consumer devices like interactive TV, STBs and DVD players.

The kernel, the latest to join the Nucleus PLUS family, is said to offer efficient, high-performance task management and includes features for intertask communication and synchronization, memory management, and component query. These, plus advanced features, like optimized system clock and interrupt and compiler register usage, help the kernel to manage difficult-to-handle priority inversions while keeping latency periods to a few microseconds.

MIPS32 24K cores are equipped with ultrafast multipliers, intelligent caches, and floating point capability to handle demanding graphics and Java code. Programmers can further enhance performance by adding custom instructions.

License fees for Nucleus PLUS embedded software, including source code, start at $12,495.

- Gil Bassak

eeProductCenter