Out in Front: November 23, 1995

A portfolio of products from Intermetrics Microsystems Software seeks to ease the communications programmer's burden: a bewildering array of communications protocols and the need to effectively program complex peripheral devices to handle these protocols.

The Intermetrics products have their base in the Precise/MQX real-time operating system (OS) for the 68xxx family and in the PassKey debugger. The debugger is "kernel-aware" and allows users to launch OS services from Windows and to examine and modify kernel data structures. The royalty-free OS kernel reduces the production cost of designs. Intermetrics adds to that combination a set of royalty-free I/O libraries to simplify communications interfacing. The library products include the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; the Simple Network Management Protocol; the X.25, MIL-STD-1553 communications, balanced-link-access, and synchronous-data-link-control protocols; and an embedded MS-DOS file-system handler.

The company has also become the exclusive distributor of the Aisys (Tel Aviv, Israel) DriveWay 302 driver-code generator. The code generator simplifies the programming and use of the Motorola 68302 communications processor. Designers simply select the on-chip peripherals they want to use and then specify the operating modes and access functions. DriveWay automatically generates the full driver source code, including test functions. The program also contains an on-line data sheet for the part describing the peripherals, modes, pins, and registers.

The Precise/MQX tools cost $8500 and include the MQX kernel, a kernel-simulation tool, a compiler, the PassKey debugger, and the Codewright integrated design environment for PCs. Prices for the communications I/O components range from $2000 to $7500. DriveWay-302 costs $1995.
-- by Richard A. Quinnell

Intermetrics Microsystems Software Inc, Cambridge, MA. (617) 661-0072.