Company History

KADAK Products Ltd. was founded in 1978 as a software consulting company which designed, implemented and tested real-time mini-computer systems for supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) in the gas and oil pipeline industry.

By 1980, KADAK had developed its first AMX real-time operating system (RTOS) for use on the Intel 8080 and Zilog Z80 which were being used as communication processors connecting an airline weather monitoring system to the SITA network.

With the advent of the 8088/86 and its subsequent support by IBM, KADAK realized that the embedded market was on a roll.

By 1989, RTOS had a buzz around it and KADAK was in the spotlight at the first Embedded Systems Conference held in the lobby of the Drake Hotel in San Francisco!

Today, with a full line-up of RTOS, network and GUI products, KADAK competes in the global marketplace.

Company Objective

Target Markets
Non-specific - most sales in the areas of mobile phones, LCD projectors/monitors, communications, medical instruments and aerospace.

Primary Business
The primary solutions KADAK supplies are:

• AMX Real Time Operating System: The AMX RTOS was first released in 1980 and is capable of meeting the critical needs of the most challenging real-time applications.
• KwikNet TCP/IP Stack: The KwikNet TCP/IP Stack and its various options enable the embedded system developer to add networking features to products with a minimum of time and expense.
• KwikPeg GUI Development Kit: The KwikPeg Graphical User Interface (GUI) provides the software interface required to add graphics to embedded products. KwikPeg is especially suited for hand-held devices with their small LCD displays.
  

Each KADAK software product is offered with a liberal site license agreement. Your entire software development team can use the software at your licensed site as you incorporate it into your system or product. KADAK only prohibits the distribution of the source code, object code, object libraries or documentation of any KADAK software to third parties. Your system or product incorporating KADAK software in executable form can be distributed, in the licensed quantities, without royalties.

Company History with ARM

Why Have You Chosen To Work With ARM And What do You See As The Primary Benefits?
KADAK works closely with ARM to keep abreast of the evolving ARM technology and to feedback any suggestions and/or problems with newly released tools and processors.

KADAK is a contributing member of the ARM tools beta program, receiving tools updates and providing feedback. KADAK worked closely with ARM engineers in the initial testing of the RVDS task-aware debug interface. KADAK is able to borrow ARM evaluation boards to test its support for specific processors and boards.

KADAK has been closely involved in working with ARM to expand the capability of the RVDS task-aware interface.

How Long Have You Been Working With ARM?
KADAK has been working with ARM for eight years.

ARM Technologies The Company Supports: ARM7, ARM9, ARM10

Which variants of the ARM processor Does KADAK Support?
"This depends on your interpretation of the term "ARM processor", explains KADAK. ARM Ltd. provides the v4, v4T, v5 and v5T architecture specifications. AMX 4-ARM will operate on any processor which adheres to these specifications. AMX 4-Thumb will operate on any processor which includes the Thumb extensions as indicated by the "T" in the architecture name, continues KADAK.

Note that the v5 (v5T) architecture simply adds enhanced instructions to the v4 (v4T) specification. AMX does not require these instructions for its operation and does not preclude your application from benefiting from their use.

ARM Ltd. also describes a variety of CPU cores. These are specific designs which incorporate other features such as DSP enhancements (example: ARM7E and ARM9E families) and Java support (example: ARM7EJ-S and ARM9EJ). There may or may not be an actual silicon implementation of these CPU cores. AMX will operate on those CPU cores which follow the v4, v4T, v5 or v5T architecture specification. But AMX does not provide support for the DSP or Java features, if any, within the CPU core.

ARM Ltd. also describes a variety of processor cores. These are designs which incorporate a particular CPU core and, in most cases, implement some form of memory management scheme using an MMU or PRU to provide instruction and/or data caching. There may or may not be an actual silicon implementation of these processor cores. AMX will operate on the processor cores which follow the v4, v4T, v5 or v5T architecture specification. AMX also provides cache management services for processor cores (such as the ARM9 and ARM9E families) which implement ARM's well defined coprocessor CP15 commands for cache control.

Finally, there are specific silicon microcontrollers derived from the ARM architecture specification or from a CPU or processor core. In some cases these are test chips manufactured for ARM Ltd. for use on ARM development boards prior to availability of the developer's own ARM ASIC. The NEC ARM7TDMI test chip is an example. Other microcontrollers (such as the Atmel AT91x40 family) are standard chips which include timers, UARTs and interrupt control ready for incorporation into an end product. Although AMX will operate on any microcontroller which follows the v4, v4T, v5 or v5T architecture specification, it may not support the complement of peripheral devices incorporated within the chip".

End Products That KADAK/ARM Is Being Shipped With:
The AD20msp430 SoftFoneTM chipset is a fourth generation GSM chipset from Analog Devices, Inc. It consists of two chips: a GSM voiceband/baseband codec mixed-signal chip and a GSM/GPRS controller containing a DSP processor and an ARM controller.

AMX 4-Thumb is the RTOS used by the GSM/GPRS protocol stack software which runs on the AD20msp430. Many mobile phone manufacturers now license AMX 4-Thumb to develop products which incorporate the AD20msp430 chipset.

Customers using AMX in mobile phones include: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.; Research in Motion Ltd.; palmOne, Inc.; Sectra Communications AB, Benefon OYJ and many others.

Featured products developed using KADAK's embedded software products can be viewed at http://www.kadak.com/html/kdkp1400.htm

Company Overview

A closer look at solutions KADAK provides and to which markets/customers: Today, KADAK Products Ltd. provides the AMX™ Real Time Operating System, KwikNet® TCP/IP Stack and KwikPeg™ GUI. Since 1980, AMX has been used worldwide at more than 2,500 development sites. KADAK's extensive documentation, Windows Configuration Builder and KwikLook™ Fault Finder speed application development.

AMX has been recognized as a superior RTOS which meets the critical needs of the most challenging real-time applications. Yet it remains simple, easy to use and understand, and flawless in its operation.

The KwikNet product line enables you to add networking features to your products with a minimum of time and expense. KwikNet is designed to meet your stringent demands for a compact, reliable, high performance TCP/IP stack.

KwikNet includes support for the TCP, UDP, IP, ICMP, ARP, RIP and DHCP (BOOTP) protocols and includes SLIP and Ethernet network drivers. Optional components are available for IPv6, SSL, IPsec, IKE, IGMP, PPP, FTP, TFTP, HTTP, TELNET, SMTP, POP3 and SNMP v1, v2, v3.

KADAK's KwikNet Porting Kit can be used with your choice of target processor and RTOS or without an RTOS. Porting has never been simpler.

The KwikPeg GUI is the tool you need to add graphics to embedded products. KwikPeg is especially suited for hand-held devices with their small LCD displays.

KwikPeg includes application development utilities which make creating your GUI a snap: Configuration Manager defines your KwikPeg Library needs Window Builder provides drag-and-drop GUI prototyping Image Converter provides image compression and palette management.

Font Grabber captures and generates ROMable fonts.

KwikLook is a Windows utility for testing embedded systems developed using AMX. When used with an AMX-aware debugger, KwikLook puts you in total control of your AMX application.

The three areas in which KADAK's software excels are ease of use, documentation and technical support.

Each KADAK software product is carefully crafted for ease of use. Configuration Managers are provided to ease system setup. For example, the KwikNet Configuration Manager (http://www.kadak.com/html/kdkp2831.htm) is a Windows utility which ensures that KwikNet is always properly configured for your use. The illustration shows the Manager's edit window as it appears while configuring your KwikNet Libraries.

AMX documentation is well organized, comprehensive and includes tutorial explanations and examples. The Reference Manual highlights the answers to the more common technical support questions.

A sample program is provided to illustrate the proper use of many of the AMX services. The Tool Guide included with AMX for each supported tool set directs you in the proper use of the compiler, assembler, librarian and linker.

KADAK has an enviable record for responsive and helpful technical support. There are no support queues here: just call or email us and we will respond in person within 1 working day.

White Paper - Priority Inheritance

A preemptive multitasking operating system allows resources to be shared between competing tasks. Locking mechanisms ensure that a shared resource is only being used by a single task at any time, preventing two tasks from attempting to manipulate the same resource at the same time.

Unfortunately, the need to share resources between tasks operating in a preemptive, multitasking environment can create conflicts. Two of the most common problems are deadlock and priority inversion, both of which can result in application failure. This paper describes in detail the problem of priority inversion. Two common solutions to the problem are described. The advantages and disadvantages of each method are discussed. Also provided are detailed strategies for avoiding priority inversion. Avoiding priority inversion is preferable to most solutions which, in general, require more code, more memory and more overhead when accessing shared resources.

White Paper - RTOS Timing Measurements

In mid 1999, KADAK was invited to participate as a member of the Embedded Microprocessor Benchmark Consortium (EEMBC) as it embarked on a mission to establish an RTOS Benchmark program. KADAK's chief engineer, W.L. (Bill) Renwick, offered to compile a preliminary timing measurement proposal to be derived from information offered by the many RTOS vendors participating in the proposed venture.

One of the documents submitted to the committee for incorporation into the timing measurement standards was KADAK's AMX Timing Guide. This document describes the problems associated with making timing measurements. It also includes several examples of frequently occurring scenarios in any multitasking system and uses KADAK's AMX RTOS as an example to illustrate the timing of events in each scenario.

Additional Information:
White Papers: http://www.kadak.com/html/kdkp1330.htm
Featured Products: http://www.kadak.com/html/kdkp1400.htm
AMX RTOS: http://www.kadak.com/rtos/rtos.htm
KwikNet TCP/IP STack: http://www.kadak.com/tcp_ip/tcpip.htm
KwikPeg GUI: http://www.kadak.com/html/kdkp1040.htm