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« on: July 09, 2007, 10:44:32 AM »
Hi All
11:11 9.7.2007 and the first uTasker forum post is being started.
I hope that you find the forum of interest and of great use for your own work, whether as student, hobbyist or embedded software professional.
The uTasker project was born during December 2004 as an experiment with the, at the time, new Freescale M9S12NE64. Starting with a scheduling operating system which had found use in various projects over the previous years it aimed at integrating a TCP/IP stack and important processor peripheral drivers to give a useful base for typical embedded projects of this nature. There were four criteria which were adhered to:
1. It was to use the GNU compiler and the Freescale serial monitor so that no further tool investments were required (in the meantime the support of various commercial compilers and IDEs are also available since they also make sense in some circumstances).
2. It should be possible to actively work on the project, including development and testing, without hardware - so a simulator was needed. It was not to be a simulator which simulated at the instruction level (most IDEs have such a thing and they are good for testing small pieces of processor critical code but not very useful for complete applications) but allow 'real-time' testing of the application, especially web type applications. It should also be possible to introduce modules of new chips and peripherals before they are really available (from preliminary data sheet) so that real work on using the new types can be started in advance...
3. The software should be highly portable, allowing it to run unchanged (above the driver level) on any of the supported processors (as long as the processor really supports the peripherals required...)
4. The solution was not to be a copy of other available solutions and it was not designed to compete with these others. It was to be an 'alternative' and complete solution which was allowed to go its own way without necessarily respecting standard conventions. Bits and pieces not required for the types of embedded tasks intended for could be left out but the final solution should include the essentials to do the job in a professional and comfortable manor. Short cuts and restrictions are allowed where they make sense but the global solution should still be usable by all, even with limited experience of embedded processing and microcontrollers.
Today the solution is used by a community of students, hobbyists and professionals and this is good. This helps to test how well the goals have been achieved and where not, gives important feedback as to in which direction the continued development should take.
Check out the processor specific forums for more details about the processors which the uTasker now supports and the state of new developments.
Please use this forum for what it is intended for - to communicate with other users and me, to ask questions, make suggestions and above all just have more fun with your own projects.
I hope to see you on-line in the near future!!
Cheers
Mark
P.S. My thanks go out to Stefan from E-Future for his valuable help in setting up this forum and integrating it into the web site. Thanks!
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