This guide provides comprehensive information about ThreadX, the Eclipse Foundation high-performance 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 1 - Provides a basic overview of ThreadX and its relationship to real-time embedded development

Chapter 2 - Gives the basic steps to install and use ThreadX in your application right out of the box

Chapter 3 - Describes in detail the functional operation of ThreadX, the high performance real-time kernel

Chapter 4 - Details the application’s interface to ThreadX

Chapter 5 - Describes writing I/O drivers for ThreadX applications

Chapter 6 - Describes the demonstration application that is supplied with every ThreadX processor support package

Appendix A - ThreadX API

Appendix B - ThreadX constants

Appendix C - ThreadX data types

Appendix D - ASCII chart

Appendix E - ThreadX SMP MISRA C compliance

Guide Conventions

Italics - typeface denotes book titles, emphasizes important words, and indicates parameters.

Boldface - typeface denotes key words, constants, type names, user interface elements, variable names, and further emphasizes important words.

Italics and Boldface - typeface denotes file names and function names.

Important
 Information symbols draw attention to important or additional information that could affect performance or function.
Warning
 Warning symbols draw attention to situations in which developers should take care to avoid because they could cause fatal errors.

ThreadX Data Types

In addition to the custom ThreadX control structure data types, there are a series of special data types that are used in ThreadX 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 with the source.

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

Data type Description

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 source. They are also located in the tx_port.h file.

Troubleshooting

For troubleshooting, be sure to collect the following information:

  1. A detailed description of the problem, including frequency of occurrence and whether it can be reliably reproduced.

  2. A detailed description of any changes to the application and/or ThreadX that preceded the problem.

  3. 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.

  4. The contents in RAM of the _tx_build_options ULONG variable. This variable gives information on how your ThreadX library was built.