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Dear RTCU User,
It is summertime and at Logic IO we are celebrating this wonderful time
of the year with yet another newsletter containing exciting news and
interesting announcements.
On the software side we are releasing the RTCU IDE 4.60
with many enhancements including the advanced EIS
Compiler.
On the hardware side we are announcing a "facelifted" version of the RTCU
M11 Series with several enhancements, as requested by our customers.
Read more about all the exciting news below
We wish you a nice and hot summer...
Best regards,
The Logic IO Team
SUMMER VACATION
NOTICE:
Logic IO will close in week 29 (July 18 to July 24, both dates included).
During this week we are not able to ship products.
Support will be
limited and only available through e-mail.
RTCU IDE 4.60 released
This RTCU IDE includes many new features and enhancements and the
following list is far from complete:
- Support for the new EIS Compiler (see section below).
- Initialization of arrays possible at declaration time.
- Support for Extended flash in the new M11i Series.
- OneWire temperature sensor supported in the simulator.
- Serial communication supported in the simulator.
- Simulator support for background update functionality.
- Advanced GPS settings added to simulator.
- Bug fixed in GPRS Alive timer in simulator running too fast.
- Problems to stop simulator when program enters Power Down fixed.
- Memory I/O subsystem increased from 16 to 256 in simulator.
- Simulation of GPRS Gateway connection with local delivery of VSMS
messages.
- Simulator support for Battery charger functionality.
- Read/Erase of persistent memory and datalogger can now be cancelled.
-
Read/Erase of persistent memory and datalogger can operate in the
background while user doing other tasks.
- batSimpleCharger() function-block added to support the A5i/A9i
units.
- Cut, Copy and Paste by right clicking in the editor window is
supported.
- Enhanced keyword recognition in the editor implemented.
- Background update (while application is running) of firmware and
application supported.
- Transfer of firmware and application can operate in the background
while user doing other tasks.
- Support for adding .INC files to a project for easier management of
large projects.
- AUTO keyword is disabled by default and its use is discouraged for
new projects (see section below on the AUTO functionality)
- All examples / on-line code snippets written without the dependency
of the AUTO functionality.
- AUTO functionality can be enabled manually to retain full
compatibility with legacy code.
- Line numbers can selectable be showed in the editor window for
easier navigation.
- Application information added to the status bar.
- New feature to only retrieve a specific time-interval of the
datalogger instead of the complete log.
- Bug fixed in the simulator where a crash could occur using sockets
when a lot of data was received.
- RTCU unit communication is faster and more reliable allowing
multiple communication sessions to co-exists without any problems.
In short the new RTCU IDE 4.60 is a "new experience", so please
download it from www.rtcu.dk and see for
yourself!
The RTCU IDE Users Manual is also available
here
The EIS Compiler
The EIS (Enhanced Instruction Set) Compiler included in the RTCU IDE
4.60 release is only supported by the LARGE RTCU models, the A9i, M10 and
M11 Series.
The EIS Compiler includes the following important enhancements:
- Automatic "dead-code" elimination. Removes unused portions of the
code.
- Very compact and efficient virtual machine instruction set.
- Support for '+', '<', '<=', '>', '>=', '<>' operators on strings.
Especially the '+' operatorer is much easier to use than strConcat().
- AUTO functionality on function-blocks are disallowed and disabled
due to the lack of transparency, especially in advanced multithreading
applications.
- Code size on large programs reduced by 50..60% and on small programs
as much as 5000%!
- Execution speed typically increased by 25%
The EIS Compiler requires the EIS Virtual Machine support in the
firmware available from firmware release 4.75.
The AUTO keyword has gone legacy!
The AUTO keyword has been used from the very first release of the RTCU IDE
to make development of RTCU applications as easy and simple as possible.
Some of the standard functions-blocks in the RTCU IDE has the AUTO attribute
which means that the compiler will automatically call the function-block
to update its status. This makes sense on small, non-multithreading
programs and actually works very well. For larger and more advanced
multithreading programs a need for a more direct control when
a function-block is called for updating arises.
Starting from RTCU IDE 4.60 the AUTO keyword functionality will be
disabled by default on new projects and when using the EIS compiler option
AUTO cannot be enabled. On small and non-EIS projects AUTO can still be
enabled to retain full backward compatibility.
An example on the difference on using gsmIncomingSMS() in an environment
with and without AUTO enabled:
With AUTO enabled (legacy setting, not recommended)
PROGRAM TEST;
VAR
sms : gsmIncomingSMS;
END_VAR;
BEGIN
//No need to call
SMS manually.
//Will be done at
BEGIN point by the compiler.
IF sms.status > 0 THEN
.....
END_IF;
END;
END_PROGRAM;
With AUTO disabled (default and recommended)
PROGRAM TEST;
VAR
sms : gsmIncomingSMS;
END_VAR;
BEGIN
sms(); //call and update
function-block manually.
IF sms.status > 0 THEN
.....
END_IF;
END;
END_PROGRAM;
The difference is clear above in that sms() must be called manually by the
program. In this short example the advantage is not visible, and may even
appear as a disadvantage, but the fact that the program decides when to
update the sms status is a major advantage in more complicated
multi-threading applications.
Firmware 4.75 (Large) released
RTCU A9i, M10 Series and M11
Series version 4.75:
- Support for EIS (Enhanced Instruction
Set) Virtual Machine
Large programs approx. 50% smaller, small programs upto 5000% smaller
and 10..25% faster execution
- Optimized string garbage collector
implementation. upto 200% faster and much faster de-allocation
-
Increase of constant string size from 32KB to 64KB
-
Support for the coming
RTCU M11i Series with extended flash capacity and enhanced GPRS recovery
features
-
Support for remote setup
of GPRS/Gateway parameters using an SMS on unprogrammed unit
-
OWTempGetID() function added. Returns OneWire ID of
specific temperature sensor.
-
Support for automatically
recovering from a VPL-fault with autoreset using the new function
boardSetFaultReset();
-
Support of new "GPRS
SENDDATA" transaction with large datasize up to 480 bytes
-
Fix of potential persistent FRAM write problems due to
write protection on chip
-
Fix of string allocation
fault occuring in advanced multithreading situations
-
Debug messages limited to
25/sec.
-
Support for the new M11i Series
Firmware version 4.55 (Small) released
RTCU D4, A6, A5i, DIN and SA version
4.55:
- Optimized string
garbage collector implementation. upto 200% faster and faster
de-allocation
- Increase of constant
strings from 32KB to 64KB
- Support for automatically recovering
from a VPL-fault with autoreset
- Fix of potential persistent FRAM write
problems due to write protection on chip
- Fix of string allocation fault
occuring in advanced situations with ASYNC function-blocks
- Debug messages limited to 25/sec.
-
Legacy support for old
serFramereceiver() version with 127 bytes receive buffer removed
(pre-version 4.45)
-
Support for an external GPS
receiver removed, except on the RTCU M7
RTCU M11i Series
The RTCU M11i Series will soon be available as a
successor to the current RTCU M11 Series and includes the following enhancements:
- Uses the Lassen IQ 12-channel GPS receiver.
First production batches of the M11i Series will use the current
Lassen SQ
8-channel GPS receiver.
- Support for optional 512 KByte extra flash capacity for additional 2000 persistent
entries.
-
Upto additional 8 MByte on-board flash supported by the hardware.
- Digitized audio is available on the headset connector.
- No restriction on the use of the ignition input.
Ignition can permanently be activated and the unit can still recover from GSM/GPRS
network problems.
- Fully
"plug compatible" with the current RTCU M11 Series.
...under development
Logic IO are always busy working on new enhancements and
products.
Currently we are working with the following:
-
RTCU GPRS Deployment & Upgrade Server.
Automatic upgrade of application/firmware is made possible with this
server using the just released background update features.
-
Next release of the RTCU GPRS Gateway Professional. -
Encrypted and Compressed GPRS Gateway communication.
Higher safety and lower communication costs are the result of these
coming features!
-
RTCU MX2
The "next generation" RTCU that will be a more compact design with a
powerfull 32-bit processor, extremely advanced power-management,
CAN-bus, SD-CARD support, Bluetooth and much much more...
Suggestions,comments and ideas to new features/products are always
welcomed...
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