RoweBots' Linux compatible RTOS for Actel's SmartFusion FPGAs

RoweBots is providing its Linux compatible RTOS named Unison for Actel's SmartFusion FPGA mixed signal FPGA devices. Unison consists of a set of software components which like Linux is either free or comercially licenced. Full Linux implementations require a CPU with a memory management unit (MMU), embedded Linux does not require an MMU but has a large memory footprint, Unison offers POSIX and Linux compatibility with hard real-time performance, complete I/O modules, small memory footprint and an environment for device driver programming. RoweBots says Unison easily integrates with FPGA and the analog features are fast and easy. Unison comes with 30+ demonstration programs that work out of the box in 10 minutes with SoftConsole.

"Our ability to offer a Linux-compliant OS opens the door for a whole new range of SmartFusion designers," said Wendy Lockhart, senior manager, design solutions marketing and training at Actel. "These designers now have access not only to a Linux operating system but an OS that has a modular memory so they can further reduce the memory footprint."

Actel and Rowebots have released new versions of Unison on SmartFusion FPGAs using ARM Cortex M3 OS, namely Unison V4 and V5.

Actel and RoweBots will be conducting a live webinar to to introduce the RoweBots Ultra Tiny Linux OS with Actel SmartFusion intelligent mixed signal FPGAs. The details of the webinar are as follows:

Date: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. PDT
Registration: http://bit.ly/actelrowebots