AWS Open Source Blog
FreeRTOS.org update for Q1 2021
In the first three months of 2021, the FreeRTOS.org blog published several posts, containing both deep technical content and FreeRTOS improvement updates. Check out the roundup of article summaries below for topics of interest to you. As always, we would love for you to participate in the FreeRTOS Forums and contribute through FreeRTOS on GitHub by giving feedback and contributing to source code and demonstrations.
Using Visual Studio Code for FreeRTOS development
Many source code editors can be used to develop embedded applications on FreeRTOS, including Visual Studio Code, which has a solid fan base among embedded engineers building on FreeRTOS today. In this blog post, Principal Product Manager Marc Goodner from Microsoft talks about how he is seeing FreeRTOS developers use Visual Studio Code today. If you’re a Visual Studio Code user, this article is a must read.
Read Using Visual Studio Code for FreeRTOS development now.
Getting the most out of FreeRTOS on AVR® microcontrollers
Yes, embedded engineers are still using—and deploying in huge numbers—8-bit microcontrollers for embedded solution workloads. In this article, Jacob Lunn Lassen, Senior Marketing Manager at Microchip Technologies, writes about how Microchip Advanced Virtual RISC (AVR) 8-bit microcontrollers are being used today and describes the advances made by related 8-bit compilers. Lassen dives deeper by giving performance numbers for the latest FreeRTOS kernel across different compilers. I love using the AVR microcontrollers—they are really fun, and you can quickly experience results from these tiny but powerful chips.
Read Getting the most out of FreeRTOS on AVR® microcontrollers now.
Benefits of using the memory protection unit
The memory protection unit (MPU) can provide increased runtime protection for your embedded applications. In this article, Adam Lewis of WITTENSTEIN high integrity systems does a great job at clearly explaining the trade-offs when using an MPU and why it might be right for you. When you’re using FreeRTOS on the Arm Cortex-M23 or Cortex-M33, this will be an important blog post for you to read.
Read Benefits of using the memory protection unit now.
Why SESIP™ Certification for FreeRTOS matters
Security Evaluation Standard for IoT Platforms (SESIP™) certification, is growing in importance in the embedded device industry. In this blog post, I describe what the FreeRTOS team went through to achieve SESIP™ Certification and why it matters to developers building embedded applications on top of FreeRTOS. I think that in the coming years SESIP™ will have increased focus, and this article can help you get ahead of the game in understanding this certification.
Read Why SESIP™ certification for FreeRTOS matters now.
FreeRTOS Long Term Support now includes AWS IoT Over-the-Air update, AWS IoT Device Defender, and AWS IoT Jobs libraries
In this blog post, Tanmoy Sen, Senior Product Manager at Amazon Web Services (AWS) focusing on FreeRTOS, provides an update on the FreeRTOS libraries receiving Long Term Support (LTS). LTS is the perfect solution when you depend on specific FreeRTOS versions for years to come. I’m looking forward to seeing how our users will leverage LTS.
Why write another MQTT library?
We are frequently asked why FreeRTOS provides coreMQTT when many MQTT libraries are already available today. In this blog post, FreeRTOS Senior Software Engineer Dan Good has solid answers and explains how the lessons learned over the years resulted in coreMQTT. The Device SDK for Embedded C also uses coreMQTT. My favorite section is where Dan talks about composability being a major factor.
Read Why write another MQTT library? now.
That’s all the blog posts for Q1 2021; keep checking FreeRTOS.org for updates throughout the coming months.