Latest News

Microsoft Windows XP Embedded Quick Start Workshop 21/01/2004

After the success of our Microsoft Windows XP Embedded seminar in Stockholm last year, MPC Data will be holding similar events in the UK throughout 2004. These seminars are staged in conjunction with Abacus Polar, and the next one will be in Newbury on 26th February.

The intensive 1 day Windows XP Embedded 'Quick Start' events are 'hands-on' seminars covering all the topics necessary to get up and running with your Windows XP Embedded Project, including:

• Configuring Target Designer
• Building your image
• Adding New Components and
• Deploying your Image

For further details please contact Graham Anstey.

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MPC Data extended support for Renesas system developers 15/01/2004

Following its initial launch during 2003, MPC Data has today announced the availability of its redeveloped Linux support site which it operates on behalf of Renesas Technology Europe. The site offers support for Renesas’ wide range industry leading microprocessors. The new site, which has a completely new look and feel, is intended to provide Renesas system developers, with online Linux support, 24 hours a day.

For full details of this exciting new development, see a copy of the Renesas press release or go to www.mpc-data.co.uk/renesas on our site.

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MPC Data completes their first QNX port to PowerPC 12/12/2003

MPC Data Limited have successfully completed another QNX project: in this instance porting the QNX Neutrino RTOS onto a custom PowerPC based platform for PicoChip Designs Limited. The project also included porting existing hardware device drivers and API libraries from VxWorks to QNX Neutrino.

To port QNX Neutrino onto the platform MPC Data Limited created a custom Board Support Package (BSP). A BSP consists of three parts, an Initial Program Loader (IPL), QNX Neutrino startup binary and a filesystem image. The IPL is responsible for initialising and testing the basic hardware components, locating a QNX Neutrino file system image (containing the startup binary) in flash memory, loading the image into RAM and passing control to the startup code. The startup code tells the OS what hardware is available and then passes control to QNX itself.

We ported PicoChip's driver and library code to operate under QNX Neutrino whilst still maintaining support for the existing VxWorks implementation. The work included Direct Memory Access (DMA) and hardware interrupt support capable of efficient operation under the different architecture models used by QNX. The system was validated using test harnesses which took the form of a test library and a Linux based remote test process.

Liam Wickins, Senior Applications Engineer at Picochip said: "MPC Data's knowledge of the QNX Neutrino operating system and tools have helped us to meet very ambitious timescales. Thanks to them our client will receive a high quality package in an impressively short timeframe. We're delighted with the service they provided."

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MPC Data publish Provisioning Technology Study 08/12/2003

MPC Data has been involved in a variety of projects within the Provisioning arena. Our Provisioning Technology Study looks at the marshalling and command of system resources to achieve a particular goal. It also examines the most common management technologies and cites real world examples of provisioning systems.

To download a copy of this paper please click here.