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The multicore revolution has begun to mature; you can tell this fact alone by the pride of place at this year's ESC, which was co-branded as the Multicore Expo. But beyond marketing, the software itself must harness the potential of multicore. Many RTOSes have already embraced multicore - that, per se, isn't news. What is new is the proliferation of software development tools that may make multicore development not just easier but more powerful. First among these at ESC is Express Logic's announcement of TraceX/MC™, a multicore-enabled and expanded version of its powerful TraceX graphical real-time event analysis tool. TraceX/MC enables embedded developers to visualize and better understand the behavior of their real-time systems by showing thread and core activity graphically across a common timescale. (More info, here).

Second, CriticalBlue and Freescale Semiconductor have made CriticalBlue's Prism development environment available to support Freescale’s QorIQ multicore processor families. Software developers will be able to migrate, optimize and verify their existing software applications on Freescale’s multicore platforms based on Power Architecture® technology. As communication equipment vendors migrate from single-core to multicore designs, they face the complex and time consuming task of rewriting their code to work with multiple cores. The addition of Prism support to Freescale’s QorIQ multicore ecosystem will help customers preserve the value of their legacy code while designing with new multicore platforms. (More info, here).

Finally, Mentor Graphics announced that the Mentor Embedded™ Nucleus® SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) technology now supports the Multicore Communications Application Programming Interface (MCAPI) standard for inter-processor communication (IPC), established by the Multicore Association. According to the company, these Mentor Graphics technologies provide a comprehensive solution for developers of multicore and multi-OS designs for both symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing (SMP and AMP) deployments. (More info, here).

Second, check out Crosshairs Embedded. Their claim to fame is a functional debugger, which lets you see inside your product in real time, in a real-world environment across the Internet. The idea is to bring debugging out of the lab and into the real world. Very cool!

Another interesting start up is Nabto. They provide embedded web server technologies. Yawn, you say? Their claim to fame is that the Internet of things has very sparse resources (e.g., limited memory and CPU), and is normally located behind a firewall or NAT router, many times not even capable of running a true webserver. Teeny tiny webservers behind firewalls... Intriguing.

VersaLogic announced their "Leopard," an ultra-fast PC/104-Plus embedded computer. Leopard brings the power of a 2nd generation Intel® Core™2 Duo processor (SP9300) to a compact PC/104-Plus form factor. "VersaLogic's new Leopard is the premium, high-performance PC/104-Plus embedded solution for applications requiring high-speed processing and extreme graphics capabilities," said Len Crane, President of VersaLogic. "Quickly advancing technology requirements in the high-end OEM markets are driving the need for higher performance and increased processing power in a small package. That's what this board really delivers." Translation: a robust, impressive incremental announcement - very solid, very customer-centric. (Details, here).

Similarly, Reach Technology built upon its expertise in embedded LCDs, embedded touch screens, and embedded controller boards to announce the SLCD5 MX21 embedded touch screen controller board which powers panels up to 12.1” with SVGA resolution (800×600). Large panels and high pixel density allow more controls to be visible at the same time, which is important for many medical and industrial embedded LCD touch screen applications. (Details, here). Both Reach and VersaLogic are examples of vendors with staying power, building on their basic strengths and waiting for customers to re-awaken during the nascent economic recovery.