A development environment and accompanying software have been released by XMOS in the form of the company’s xTIMEcomposer Studio and xSOFTip IP library.
The company’s multicore microcontroller architecture is said to provide one of the lowest latency, fast I/O responses and deterministic performances required for real-time applications such as consumer, audio, industrial, and automotive.
The company’s xTIMEcomposer Studio is described as allowing embedded designers to develop complex systems using its xCORE multicore microcontroller devices in a familiar graphical design environment.
This design suite includes static timing analysis and cycle-accurate simulation tools, which are said to enable up to a 60 percent improvement in run-time performance, code size reduction of up to 17 percent, and improvements in designer productivity, with compile time reduced by up to 40 percent.
In line with this release, a comprehensive library of more than 40 soft peripheral IP and processing blocks has also been released by the company that can be used to configure its xCORE multicore microcontrollers.
A new, free-to-download GUI-based tool called xSOFTip Explorer is also available that is said to allow developers to easily browse available xSOFTip blocks and quickly configure xCORE devices. This library is made up of interfaces and IP blocks that support key standards for the consumer, audio, industrial and automotive markets.
“XMOS is a young company that is growing rapidly,” commented Nigel Toon, President and CEO of XMOS. “The embedded market represents a $76bn opportunity overall, and our xCORE multicore microcontrollers offer significant advantages over traditional MCUs.
“xTIMEcomposer and xSOFTip allow developers familiar with C to access deterministic multicore performance more easily than ever before.”
“System designers understand the limitations of traditional 8-, 16- and 32-bit MCUs in embedded applications, but they like their ease of use and simple development environments,” Nigel continued.
“They are now looking to multicore alternatives that can meet critical I/O response times, perform multiple tasks concurrently and support new interface standards: but they want the same easy-to-use development environment. As embedded systems continue to become more complex, xCORE, supported by xTIMEcomposer and xSOFTip, meets this rapidly growing need.”
The 32-bit xCORE multicore architecture is said to allow processing performance to be dynamically shared, allowing a single chip to support multiple concurrent, real-time tasks that are completely deterministic.
XMOS
