Wind River Releases 64-Bit VxWorks RTOS

Nuremberg, Germany – At Embedded World here, Wind River introduced an updated version of VxWorks, what it claims is the one of the first commercial RTOSes delivering 64-bit computing support as well as improved multi-core processing support.

“The embedded market is facing skyrocketing demands for processing performance as systems become ever more complex and increasingly connected,” Warren Kurisu, vice president of VxWorks product management at Wind River. ”The sheer amount of compute power, memory and data required for embedded applications continues to climb exponentially,”

The update to VxWorks is designed, he said to deliver 64-bit support both in data and code execution - once the sole domain of supercomputer and server markets.

For telecommunications network infrastructure equipment manufacturers, 64-bit computing is critical in keeping up with the stresses of increasingly exploding data, said Kurisu, pointing out that other vertical industries are also demanding 64-bit support: industrial and medical applications such as high-definition imagery, and aerospace and defense applications such as highly complex radar, sonar and sensors.

The latest VxWorks delivers greater multi-core processing performance in both symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) and asymmetrical multiprocessing (AMP) configurations.

VxWorks platforms now bundles the Intel optimizing C++ compiler and the Intel Performance Primitives (IPP) library for Intel architectures only. It also now includes support for the ARM Cortex A9 processor, with a multi-core SMP and ARM Thumb-2 instruction set.

Also incorporated are enhanced networking capabilities, including new security features and increased Internet Engineering Task Force Request for Comments (IETF RFC) support.

Additionally, software development on VxWorks continues to be enabled by the Wind River Workbench development tools suite. The latest version of VxWorks will be available in March. For more information, go to www.windriver.com.