Rapid development of reliable embedded systems

RapidiTTy™ MCU provides a cost-effective suite of tools which support the development of code for “Commercial off-the-Shelf” (CotS) microcontrollers with ARM7® and Cortex-M3® cores. In the current version of the tool, full support is provided for the NXP LPC-2xxx (ARM7), Luminary (Cortex M3) and STM32 (Cortex M3) families of devices.

RapidiTTy™ MCU includes the TTE Builder™ engine which helps the designer integrate, customise and configure an extensive suite of library code (including three complete embedded operating systems) in order to match the precise needs of a given application.

RapidiTTy™ MCU helps to ensure that even new developers can produce reliable embedded systems, and helps to maximise the efficiency of an experienced development team.

Key features

• A tightly-integrated tool suite with compiler, debugger and timing analysis.
• Support for both ARM7® and Cortex-M3® targets.
• Full source code for two simple, resource-efficient operating systems (sEOS, TTCos) suitable for use in single-processor embedded systems.
• Full source code for the SC-TTCos operating system, for use with distributed (multi-processor) embedded systems interconnected using the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus.
• An extensive suite of high-quality library code covering day-to-day tasks such as reading switches, controlling LCD displays, reading analogue-to-digital convertors, RS-232 (UART) communications, using pulse-width modulation, etc.
• A high-quality, flexible, library for Ethernet communications, fully integrated with the above operating systems.
• The TTE Builder™ engine which helps the designer integrate, customise and configure the library code to match the precise needs of a given application.
• Support for the examples in Part A and Part B of the RD-RES book project.

Example application

One example of a system created using RapidiTTy™ MCU is our Adaptive Cruise-Control Test Facility, which is illustrated below.

This testbed incorporates 10 embedded processors (NXP LPC2378), linked by a dual CAN bus and executing a PID algorithm: it represents a state-of-the-art (adaptive) cruise control system for a passenger car.

Further information is available.

Starter kits and evaluation boards

Please see our Partners page for information about starter kits and evaluation boards which are compatible with RapidiTTy™ MCU.

Compatible JTAG hardware

To make full use of RapidiTTy™ MCU (for example, to carry out detailed timing analysis) you will require appropriate JTAG debug hardware.

Please see our Partners page for information about cost-effective JTAG hardware which is compatible with RapidiTTy™ MCU.

RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0

Building on the success of our previous RapidiTTy™ Builder tool family, RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 includes some major new features. We provide a summary in this section, including information about Early-Bird registration.

Enhanced Builder engine

RapidiTTy™ MCU includes the TTE Builder™ engine which helps the designer integrate, customise and configure an extensive suite of library code in order to match the precise needs of a given application.

In RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0, an enhanced TTE Builder™ engine is included. All code libraries have been refined in order to improve code quality (and readability) and to make it even easier to port code between target platforms.

Extensive examples

RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 includes an extended and refined set of code examples.

Extended support for RAM-based designs is also included (allowing significant performance improvements).

Early-Bird registration

RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 will be released in January 09 at a cost of £1495 + VAT per seat (pricing in other currencies available on request).

Our popular “Early Bird” registration programme is available for RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 until 5 January 09: under this programme, you pay just £1195 + VAT per seat (conditions apply).

If you purchase RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 under our Early-Bird programme, you will receive:

• A copy of RapidiTTy™ Builder 1.02 immediately (with full support).
• An upgrade to RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 when this product is released in January 09.
• A further 12 months of full support starting when RapidiTTy™ MCU 2.0 is released to you.

Please contact us to place your order or to request further details.

How many licences do you need?

All of our software products are “node locked” to a single computer. However, we recognise that our customers often need to work on more than one computer (for example, they may sometimes need to use a second computer for field testing or when working at home).

If you require two licences (for use by one individual on two different computers), please let us know: we can often provide an additional “laptop licence” with your order for just £50.00 + VAT.

Please contact us for further details.

Applications for RapidiTTy™ MCU

As with all products from TTE Systems, RapidiTTy™ MCU is based on time-triggered (TT) technology. Use of TT technology helps to ensure that your applications have very predictable behaviour, and makes them easier to debug and test.

The benefits of TT technology are widely recognised, which is why this approach has been used in the aerospace industry for some 30 years. As a result of more than a decade of research (and several patent applications), the advent of the RapidiTTy™ family now means that the benefits of TT technology are available for use in a much wider range of applications.

Typical applications for RapidiTTy™ MCU include:

• Aerospace (e.g. aircraft flight and engine control; satellite systems)
• Automotive (e.g. cruise control, steer-by-wire, engine management, roadside traffic signal)
• White goods (e.g. washing machines, dishwashers)
• Brown goods (e.g. set-top boxes)
• Medical (e.g. clinical monitoring systems)
• Industrial / factory control (e.g. robotics, control systems, condition monitoring / fault diagnosis)
• Railway (e.g. on vehicles and trackside)
• Defence (e.g. in-vehicle communications, flight control)
• Telecommunications (e.g. handsets, walkie-talkies, base stations)
• Agriculture (e.g. farm equipment, dairy systems, livestock feeding systems)
• Sports (e.g. score boards, monitoring horse racing)

Support and product updates

We run a simple and transparent system for updates and support.

Please refer to our support page for further details.

Take a test-drive with RapidiTTy™ Lite

You can try out some of the features of RapidiTTy™ MCU by downloading RapidiTTy™ Lite, free of charge.

RapidiTTy™ Lite has the following features:

• A simple (but complete) tool suite with compiler and debug support.
• Support for ARM7® targets.
• Examples using the sEOS operating system.
• Support for the examples in Part A of the RD-RES book project.

RapidiTTy™ MCU expands on the feature-set of RapidiTTy™ Lite in the following areas:

• Supports Cortex-M3® targets.
• Supports timing analysis (for testing and verification).
• Supports the development of distributed (multi-processor) embedded systems.
• Includes the TTE Builder™ engine, which allows easy and fast component-based development of otherwise complex systems.
• Includes complete source-code for Ethernet and TCP/IP examples
• Includes several complete case-studies illustrating the development of reliable embedded systems.

For further information about RapidiTTy™ Lite, please refer to the user guide.

RapidiTTy™ Lite can be downloaded free of charge from our downloads page

Further information

We believe that RapidiTTy™ MCU provides a unique set of features which support the rapid development of reliable embedded systems, without requiring large memory or CPU resources — for our customers, this translates directly into reduced development time and allows use of lower-cost microcontrollers.

For further information about RapidiTTy™ MCU, please refer to the brochure, the getting started guide (including a detailed tutorial) or the user manual.

RapidiTTy™ Builder

Previous versions of RapidiTTy™ MCU were known as RapidiTTy™ Builder.