About This Guide

This guide provides comprehensive information about ThreadX SMP, the Eclipse Foundation high-performance embedded real-time kernel.

It is intended for the embedded real-time software developer. The developer should be familiar with standard real-time operating system functions and the C programming language.

Organization

Chapter	Overview
Chapter 1	Provides a basic overview of ThreadX SMP and its relationship to real-time embedded development.
Chapter 2	Gives the basic steps to install and use ThreadX SMP in your application right out of the box.
Chapter 3	Describes in detail the functional operation of ThreadX SMP, the high-performance real-time SMP kernel.
Chapter 4	Details the application’s interface to ThreadX SMP.
Chapter 5	Describes writing I/O drivers for ThreadX SMP applications.
Chapter 6	Describes the demonstration application that is supplied with every ThreadX SMP processor support package.
Appendix A	ThreadX SMP API
Appendix B	ThreadX SMP constants
Appendix C	ThreadX SMP data types
Appendix D	ASCII chart

Chapter

Overview

Chapter 1

Provides a basic overview of ThreadX SMP and its relationship to real-time embedded development.

Chapter 2

Gives the basic steps to install and use ThreadX SMP in your application right out of the box.

Chapter 3

Describes in detail the functional operation of ThreadX SMP, the high-performance real-time SMP kernel.

Chapter 4

Details the application’s interface to ThreadX SMP.

Chapter 5

Describes writing I/O drivers for ThreadX SMP applications.

Chapter 6

Describes the demonstration application that is supplied with every ThreadX SMP processor support package.

Appendix A

ThreadX SMP API

Appendix B

ThreadX SMP constants

Appendix C

ThreadX SMP data types

Appendix D

ASCII chart

Guide Conventions

Italics - typeface denotes book titles, emphasizes important words, and indicates variables.
Boldface - typeface denotes file names, key words, and further emphasizes important words and variables.

Information symbols draw attention to important or additional information that could affect performance or function.

Warning symbols draw attention to situations that developers should take care to avoid because they could cause fatal errors.

ThreadX SMP Data Types

In addition to the custom ThreadX SMP control structure data types, there are a series of special data types that are used in ThreadX SMP service call interfaces. These special data types map directly to data types of the underlying C compiler. This is done to insure portability between different C compilers. The exact implementation can be found in the tx_port.h file included on the distribution disk.

The following is a list of ThreadX SMP service call data types and their associated meanings:

Data Type	Meaning
UINT	Basic unsigned integer. This type must support 8-bit unsigned data; however, it is mapped to the most convenient unsigned data type.
ULONG	Unsigned long type. This type must support 32-bit unsigned data.
VOID	Almost always equivalent to the compiler’s void type.
CHAR	Most often a standard 8-bit character type.

Data Type

Meaning

UINT

Basic unsigned integer. This type must support 8-bit unsigned data; however, it is mapped to the most convenient unsigned data type.

ULONG

Unsigned long type. This type must support 32-bit unsigned data.

VOID

Almost always equivalent to the compiler’s void type.

CHAR

Most often a standard 8-bit character type.

Additional data types are used within the ThreadX SMP source. They are also located in the tx_port.h file.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting, be sure to collect the following information:

A detailed description of the problem, including frequency of occurrence and whether it can be reliably reproduced.
A detailed description of any changes to the application and/or ThreadX SMP that preceded the problem.
The contents of the _tx_version_id string found in the tx_port.h file of your distribution. This string provides valuable information regarding your run-time environment.
The contents in RAM of the _tx_build_options ULONG variable. This variable gives information on how your ThreadX SMP library was built.