New Features in On Time RTOS-32 3.0

RTTarget-32

On Time RTOS-32
The products RTTarget-32, RTKernel-32, and RTFiles-32 have been more tightly integrated and are now presented as On Time RTOS-32. All three products reside in the same directory tree, so you only need a single compiler setting for include and library paths to use any combination of On Time RTOS-32 components. The three separate User's Manuals have been merged into a single manual.
GUI Installation
On Time RTOS-32 is more Windows friendly. It comes with an installation wizard which also creates entries in the Windows Start Menu for various tasks, including deinstallation.
Visual Studio 6.0 Integration
Many sample demo projects for Visual Studio are included. The Visual Studio integrated debugger can be used to cross-debug On Time RTOS-32 programs. However, RTD32 remains part of the product and can also be used for debugging Microsoft Visual C++ programs.
Improved Host <-> Target Communication Protocol
The protocol is more robust and can now recover from many different communication errors. Overlapped I/O is disabled automatically if it causes problems. Retries can recover from sporadic lost characters or a temporary communication link failure.
Demo Programs Restructured
Each example program now resides in a separate directory, making it easier to locate the files related to a particular program.
RTLoc Configuration File Preprocessor
RTLoc now understands the same (and some extra) preprocessor commands as your C/C++ compiler.
New BINFile Command
RTLoc can now produce binary image files as an alternative to Intel HEX files. BIN files are an exact image of a region of target memory without any header or other supplemental information.
New MakeDef Utility
MakeDef can generate most .DEF files you will need to manage your projects using DLLs and/or DLMs.
Win32 Resources
RTTarget-32's Win32 emulation now supports functions FindResource, LoadString, etc. Resources allow you to place arbitrary data in executable files.
PCI and PnP BIOS Access Functions
RTTarget-32's library has been enhanced with function calls for protected mode PCI BIOS services.
PC Card (PCMCIA) Support
RTTarget-32's library now contains functions to identify and manage PC Cards. Enablers are included for serial ports (including modems), IDE/ATA disks, and CompactFlash disks. Low-level card service functions allow identifying and enabling any type of card.
Parallel Port Support Functions
RTTarget-32 now has low-level functions to send data to parallel ports. A file system handler is also provided; it can handle writes to device files PRN, LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3.
Improved Keyboard Support
RTTarget-32's keyboard drivers now support LEDs for NumLock, ScollLock, and CapsLock. National keyboard mappings can be changed with hotkeys. Keyboard interrupt CPU time and stack requirements have been reduced.
Improved Extended Memory Detection
On PC compatible targets with a BIOS, RTTarget-32's new function RTGetExtMem() can determine the amount of installed RAM even when more than 64M is installed. Function RTCMOSExtendHeap() has been updated to take advantage of this new feature.

RTKernel-32

New RTKRTLCreateThread Function
RTKRTLCreateThread allows threads to be created in cooperation with the compiler's multithread run-time system. Since the run-time system is aware of your tasks, it will handle all run-time system reentrance issues automatically.
New Memory Allocation Driver MEMW32
This new driver improves heap usage efficiency by using RTTarget-32's Win32 heaps for RTKernel-32's memory allocations. MEMW32 is now the default memory driver.

RTFiles-32

FAT-32 Support
RTFiles-32 now supports FAT-12, FAT-16, and FAT-32 partitions. Extended cluster sizes of up to 32768 sectors per cluster for FAT-16 partitions continue to be supported, but FAT-32 is now the recommended method of supporting large partitions.
Removable Hard Disk Support
RTFiles will now detect and remount hard disks when they are removed/inserted. This allows PCMCIA disks such as ATA flash disks or CompactFlash disks to be hot-swapped without restarting the application.
Improved File Sharing
The same file can be opened several times. RTFiles-32 guarantees that each open instance will see the same file data and file size.
Updated M-Systems DiskOnChip 2000 Driver
With this driver, RTFiles-32 now supports DiskOnChip devices with up to 160MB capacity. The new Millennium DiskOnChip series is also supported.
Linear Flash Disk Driver
RTFiles-32 now comes with a flash file system driver to implement FAT file systems on flash chips directly addressable by the CPU. The flash driver can be customized to interface with any kind of flash device. The flash driver minimizes erase cycles and implements wear-leveling.
Formatting and Partitioning Support
RTFiles-32 can now partition and format hard disks. A powerful demo program is included which can be used to set up any virgin hard disk.

Upgrade Issues

In general, On Time RTOS-32 3.0 is compatible with RTTarget-32 2.1, RTKernel-32 5.0, and RTFiles-32 1.1. Only RTTarget-32's serial I/O library and the location of header file and library directories of RTKernel-32 and RTFiles-32 have changed.

RTTarget-32's Serial I/O Module RTCom renamed
Due to name conflicts with RTKernel-32's module RTCom, RTTarget-32's former module RTCom has been renamed to RTTCom and all of its identifiers have been prefixed with "RT". If you prefer not to use the new names, header file Include\Obsolete\Rtcom.h is supplied to make the old names available.
RTTarget-32's Libraries RTCOM.LIB and RTTBDISK.LIB Merged into RTT32.LIB
Likewise, DLL RTCOMDLL.DLL has been merged into RTT32DLL.DLL.
RTFiles-32 Internal Data Structures Changed
The RTFiles-32 device list and other data structures have changed, but continue to be source code compatible with previous versions. Please be sure to recompile all sources with the new release. There are no source code modifications required.
Include and Library Directories
If you are using RTKernel-32 and/or RTFiles-32, note that their respective header and library files reside in the same directories as those of RTTarget-32.
Version Mixing
We cannot guarantee that On Time RTOS-32 components of different versions will work together properly. Each component has two version numbers: a product version and an On Time RTOS-32 version. All components used in one project should have the same On Time RTOS-32 version number. Maintenance releases will be distributed as self-applying patch files for all of On Time RTOS-32. Each patch file will update an On Time RTOS-32 installation of one version to a newer version, regardless of which components are installed.
Visual Studio 6.0 Debugging
If you are using Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0, you will probably want to use it for debugging On Time RTOS-32 programs. However, If you are running under Windows 95/98/ME, you must locate the application such that its code appears in address range 4M to 2G. This requirement usually means that programs must be located to a virtual region. All demo programs shipped with the current version of On Time RTOS-32 use a virtual region. Please refer to the demos for further examples. Under Windows NT/2000, no changes to existing configuration files are required.
RTKernel-32 Automatic Library Protection
Library Protection is still supported by the new release, but it is no longer the recommended method of solving C/C++ run-time system reentrance issues. Instead, all demo programs now use the multithread run-time libraries of the compiler and create all threads using the new function RTKRTLCreateThread. To update your applications accordingly, add the compiler option for multithreaded applications (Microsoft: /MT, Borland: -WM, Watcom: -bm, Delphi: <none required>) and globally rename all calls to RTKCreateThread to RTKRTLCreateThread. If you prefer to continue using Automatic Library Protection, please reapply library protection to your run-time system libraries.