Mentor Graphics Announces the Next-Generation Nucleus RTOS Addressing Power Management and Connectivity Issues for Embedded Systems

WILSONVILLE, Ore., October 19, 2011 - Mentor Graphics Corporation today announced its third generation flagship NucleusR Real Time Operating System (RTOS). The Nucleus product adds built-in power management capabilities that seamlessly use hardware features such as Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS), making it ideal for power conscious, battery-powered applications. New Nucleus connectivity features include a certified "IPv6 Ready" networking stack and security protocols, as well as a variety of wireless communication options such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee to enable faster time-to-market when developing connected devices.

The Nucleus RTOS readily supports a comprehensive set of architectures and processor families, including ARM, MIPS, Power PC, and SuperH, as well as DSPs and soft processor cores on FPGAs.

"Mentor's Nucleus RTOS targeting connectivity and low power demonstrates Mentor's understanding of issues critical to today's MCU-based designs," said Miguel Morales, director of marketing, Stellaris Cortex-M MCUs, Texas Instruments. "The scalable technology, ease of configuration and small footprint makes the Nucleus RTOS an ideal solution for designers using Stellaris microcontrollers."

"GCT is leading the 4G ecosystem with their single-chip LTE SoC solutions," said Larry Dano, vice president of product development, GCT Semiconductor. "Having Nucleus as a solid software foundation and ecosystem enabler has been key for us. Our focus on reducing component cost, lowering power consumption, and offering a smaller footprint aligns well with the newly enhanced Nucleus."

Used in more than 2.3 billion mobile handsets, the MentorR Embedded Nucleus product is a proven, highly efficient, and reliable operating system. The Nucleus RTOS delivers high performance while optimizing resource usage in a single-OS or multi-OS platform, ideal for resource-constrained devices (frequency and memory), and for environments where squeezing out every cycle-per-watt is critical across any system architecture.

Through single API calls, application developers can use the built-in power management capability in the Nucleus product to accomplish complex tasks like changing system states or switching operating points in a portable and re-usable way. This saves them from having to implement and maintain highly complex scenarios within their application code. The Nucleus RTOS also includes a new configuration technology that enables developers to immediately and easily customize system requirements.

"The growing number of our Nucleus customers is another proof point that Mentor continues to invest in best-in-class technologies and services," said Glenn Perry, general manager, Mentor Graphics Embedded Software Division. "We will continue this effort and work tightly with our hardware partners to help our mutual customers develop the most innovative products in the least amount of time."

The third-generation Nucleus RTOS has been extended into the Mentor Embedded Nucleus ReadyStartT platform, integrating software IP, developer tools, and services to provide a single "ready-to-use" solution for applications where fast boot time, deterministic performance, and small code size are essential. With the Nucleus ReadyStart platform, developers can create a board-specific application development environment in just ten minutes. It includes the Mentor Embedded SourceryT CodeBench technology, GNU-based integrated development environment (IDE), and the Mentor Embedded InflexionR UI tool for dynamic 2D/3D user interface creation.

"One of the main value points that Mentor provides is engineering efficiency in products such as the high-performance Nucleus ReadyStart platform and dynamic Inflexion UI software," said Michael Gabler, software team leader, Bosch GmbH. "Both have enabled us to develop our high-end cooktops the way we envisioned."

For further information on the new Nucleus-based technologies, visit the company website at www.mentor.com/nucleus.