Express Logic(R) and Tensilica(R) Announce ThreadX(R) RTOS for Tensilica's Diamond Standard and Xtensa(R) Processor Cores

Update: Cadence Completes Acquisition of Tensilica (Apr 24, 2013)

Combined SoC Solution Already Field-Proven in High-Volume Printer Designs

BOSTON -- September 25, 2006 -- Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), today announced that its popular ThreadX RTOS now supports all of Tensilica's Diamond Standard and Xtensa configurable processor cores. The combination of ThreadX and Tensilica's Xtensa is already production-proven in a high-volume SOC design used in personal laser printers. Leveraging this successful integration, Express Logic and Tensilica have cooperated to bring ThreadX to the Diamond Standard processor cores for SoCs used in consumer, networking, and office automation applications.

ThreadX is a small-footprint RTOS with real-time determinism that enables Tensilica customers to support applications that demand high-performance, low overhead, and fast time-to-market. As a full port to all of the Tensilica products, ThreadX supports Tensilica's onchip coprocessors including its floating point unit, Vectra DSP engine and special Tensilica Instruction Extension (TIE) cases. The simplicity and low cost of ThreadX, including its royalty-free licensing, make it attractive for high-volume applications in consumer devices, office automation, medical equipment and networking. ThreadX has been widely embraced and is currently deployed in over 300 million electronic products.

"Many of our Xtensa and Diamond Standard customers have asked us if ThreadX support is available," said Steve Roddy, Tensilica's vice president of marketing. "We're delighted that ThreadX will now be a formal part of the supporting ecosystem for all of our processor cores. The ThreadX RTOS is extremely efficient, proven in multiple applications, and easy to design in -- perfect for many Diamond Standard and Xtensa-based designs."

Tensilica's Diamond Standard Series processor family consists of six off-the-shelf, synthesizable cores that range from area-efficient, low-power controllers to the industry's highest performance licensable DSP and most popular audio processor. The Diamond Standard family covers the broadest range of performance of any embedded computing architecture. The Diamond Standard processor family is based on Tensilica's highly efficient Xtensa configurable and extensible processor architecture, proven in hundreds of SOC designs. Therefore, it's easy for designers to bridge to Tensilica's Xtensa processor product line if additional customization is required.

"One of our largest customers, a major personal and business printer manufacturer, uses the ThreadX RTOS throughout their product lines. Some of these high-volume personal laser printer products are based on Tensilica's Xtensa processors," stated John Carbone, Express Logic's vice president of marketing. "After the success of this integration for a mutual customer, and the popularity of Tensilica's recently introduced Diamond Standard processors, we are excited to cooperate with Tensilica to broadly market our ThreadX RTOS for Tensilica's entire Diamond Standard processor family as well as the Xtensa configurable processors."

Pricing and Availability

ThreadX is available in full source code form, royalty free, at license prices starting at $12,500. It is available from Express Logic now for Tensilica's Diamond Standard processor cores and will be available in 4Q2006 for Tensilica's Xtensa processor cores.

About Tensilica

Tensilica offers the broadest line of controller, CPU and specialty DSP processors on the market today, in both an off-the-shelf format via the Diamond Standard Series cores and with full designer configurability with the Xtensa processor family. Tensilica's low-power, benchmark proven processors have been designed into high-volume products at industry leaders in the digital consumer, networking and telecommunications markets. All Tensilica processor cores are complete with a matching software development tool environment, portfolio of system simulation models, and hardware implementation tool support. For more information on Tensilica's patented approach to the creation of application-specific building blocks for SOC design, visit www.tensilica.com.

About Express Logic

Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX® RTOS, the high-performance NetX(TM) TCP/IP stack, the FileX® embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, and the USBX(TM) Host/Device USB protocol stack. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquires to sales@expresslogic.com.