Hello uTasker users
Happy New Year and best wishes for a successful time in 2016!!
It has been some time since a uTasker newsletter was last sent out but the close of the old and start of the new year seems like a good opportunity to combine sending regards to the many colleagues that I have been able to collaborate with in the past and giving information to both new and old users about the present state of the project, and the direction that it is moving in.
So I'll start with some statistics to get things rolling:
- The project is now 11 years old - there is a brief history at
http://www.utasker.com/history.html, which is valid up to around 2014.
- There are presently around 3'500 registered users
- The most popular target is the Kinetis with close to 1'000 registered users - this is in keeping with the fact that some of the targets have become legacy and the Coldfire V2, the most popular target up to 2012, tends to be replaced by these. In addition, the Kinetis is the target that is the present main focus of the uTasker project.
2015 proved to be the year where low power and USB devices took off in new product developments. Originally the uTasker project focused on networking, with its integrated TCP/IP stack being what most users were mainly interested in. Although there continues to be activity (such as new multi-homed support, SNMP and IGMP added in the last year or so) the jump in demand for USB and low power modes in new products meant that the uTasker USB stack has also seen some interesting advancements, such as simple configuration of composite devices, addition of new classes (including audio and network adapter classes which are in the validation stage) as well as USB-MSD and CDC "host" modes now integrated into the project.
The uTasker serial loader (with a larger amount of options and compatible on a large range of parts -
http://www.utasker.com/docs/uTasker/uTaskerSerialLoader.PDF) has also attracted new users since it allows any application to be used with it and has saved large amounts of developing or porting time in comparison to various other options that such projects were otherwise faced with. A number of new uTasker serial loader users have in addition realised that the uTasker main project also allows their applications to be realised more efficiently, so have completed the full transition to the environment.
What I expect from 2016 is the continuation of the trend with ever more products adopting the uTasker boot loader capabilities and also requiring USB. The uTasker project is now very well equipped for these requirements and, with additional classes soon to leave the validation phase and enter production status, is destined to help save development time by being able to quickly and easily adopt this extended pallet of proven solutions together with its more traditional core (reliable scheduler, TCP/IP, low memory footprint, peripheral drivers, simulation capabilities and support).
With most of the ground work now completed for the majority of networking and USB requirements, in addition to a high percentage of coverage of existing Kinetis peripherals, the direction in 2016 is quite firmly pointing to security. The IoT trend (whatever that actually means) is certainly highlighting security requirements in small sensor based devices and so the call for an integrated solution is getting noticeably louder. Some tentative work was stared in 2015 but was overrun by other (said) requests before much progress could be made - in 2016 the tables are likely to turn so I am expecting real results and looking forward to the extended feature set to start making bigger waves.
I would like to thank everyone who has been active in the project, both recently and over the years - it is alway great to hear from people/companies who have been successfully developing their products in the uTasker environment, especially when it has proven suitable for their requirements over a period of several years. The goal is to continue developments to match changing requirements so that it continues to be suitable and efficient in a high percentage of real-work projects. If you have comments and feedback this is always welcomed and taken seriously in defining where effort is channeled to.
Again I wish you the best for the new year and great success with your work!!
Regards
Mark
