TenAsys (rhymes with ''tenacious'') is a privately owned company providing real-time software and services based on the x86 Intel Architecture and Microsoft Windows operating system.

History

The company was founded in 2000 as a spin-off of

RadiSys Corporation Radisys Corporation is an American technology company located in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States that makes technology used by telecommunications companies in mobile networks. Founded in 1987 in Oregon by former employees of Intel, the company w ...

to exploit the RTOS technology based on the

iRMX Real-time Multitasking eXecutive (iRMX) is a real-time operating system designed for use with the Intel 8080 and 8086 family of processors. Overview Intel developed iRMX in the 1970s and originally released RMX/80 in 1976 and RMX/86 in 1980 t ...

and INtime for Windows products originally developed by

Intel Corporation Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...

. RadiSys acquired the iRMX and INtime RTOS technology when they purchased Intel's Multibus division in 1996. RadiSys released version 1.0 of the INtime RTOS in June, 1997. The product was selected as one of two finalists in the EDN 1997 "Innovation of the Year" embedded development category. Effective 2000 iRMX III is supported, maintained, and licensed worldwide by TenAsys Corporation, under an exclusive licensing arrangement with Intel.

Products

TenAsys headquarters - Hillsboro, Oregon

TenAsys develops real-time operating system (

RTOS A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which m ...

) products designed to merge two separate computing platforms into one. Specifically, their products provide a means by which an RTOS can run in parallel with

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

on a standard PC platform. Their products are specific to the x86 Intel architecture.

iRMX III

is a

real-time operating system A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which ...

designed specifically for use with the

Intel 8080 The Intel 8080 (''"eighty-eighty"'') is the second 8-bit microprocessor designed and manufactured by Intel. It first appeared in April 1974 and is an extended and enhanced variant of the earlier 8008 design, although without binary compati ...

and

Intel 8086 The 8086 (also called iAPX 86) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and June 8, 1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released July 1, 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allow ...

family of processors. It is an acronym for ''Real-time Multitasking eXecutive''.

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the devel ...

developed iRMX in the late 1970s and originally released it in 1980 to support and create demand for their processors and Multibus system platforms.

iRMX for Windows

iRMX for Windows provides legacy support for existing applications based on the iRMX III real-time operating system and the iRMX for Windows RTOS produced by

beginning in 1992. The iRMX for Windows RTOS loads and runs on a standard Windows system. Upon initialization, it sets up a separate execution environment, takes over the CPU, and encapsulates Windows as the lowest priority iRMX task. The iRMX operating system scheduler then determines which tasks will run; whenever a real-time task is ready to run, it preempts Windows, handles all real-time activities, and then resumes Windows (the lowest priority iRMX task) after all real-time activities have completed.

INtime RTOS for Windows

Like iRMX for Windows, the INtime RTOS also installs on a standard Windows system. Once installed, the INtime RTOS schedules all

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

processes to run first, at a higher priority than Windows. The INtime RTOS runs as a separate, independent kernel outside of the Windows kernel, without modifying the Windows kernel, drivers, or applications. Real-time processes run on the INtime kernel, and non-real-time processes run on Windows. Windows application threads communicate with their real time counterparts on the INtime kernel through a special API that facilitates coordination and data sharing.

eVM Virtualization Platform for Windows

The eVM virtualization platform provides a

virtual machine In computing, a virtual machine (VM) is the virtualization/ emulation of a computer system. Virtual machines are based on computer architectures and provide functionality of a physical computer. Their implementations may involve specialized har ...

that hosts real-time and embedded operating systems running alongside Microsoft Windows. The eVM platform requires

Intel virtualization technology x86 virtualization is the use of hardware-assisted virtualization capabilities on an x86/x86-64 CPU. In the late 1990s x86 virtualization was achieved by complex software techniques, necessary to compensate for the processor's lack of hardware-a ...

(or Intel VT) in order to operate. The guest OS that runs within the VMM runs in parallel with Windows, on an industry-standard, PC-compatible, multi-core platform. Legacy I/O can be emulated using Intel VT. Virtual communication channels, such as a virtual Ethernet or a virtual serial link, provide a means for embedded applications running on the VMM to coordinate with Windows applications. Direct hardware (access to I/O) and deterministic timing (interrupt latency) needs are addressed by giving the guest OS direct access to time-critical hardware. I/O is assigned exclusively to each guest OS so existing native device drivers have direct access to real hardware.

Development Environment

TenAsys RTOS tools are integrated into the Microsoft

Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms such ...

IDE.

Notes

References

* (history and technology overview) * (application of virtualization to embedded systems) * (impact of virtualization technology on manufacturing systems) * (application of an RTOS to machine-control) * (COTS virtualization software for military system applications)

External links

TenAsys homepage

iRMX product page

INtime product page

eVM product page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tenasys Software companies based in Oregon Companies based in Hillsboro, Oregon Companies established in 2000 Privately held companies based in Oregon 2000 establishments in Oregon Software companies of the United States