Microsoft Acquired RTOS Company

By Swapnil Bhartiya

ThreadX joins Microsoft’s Azure Sphere OS.

Microsoft has acquired Express Logic, the maker of ThreadX, a real-time operating system for embedded devices.

Microsoft already owns Linux-based Azure Sphere OS, an operating system designed for IoT / Edge devices. However, by acquiring Express Logic, the company hopes to expand its support for microcontroller unit (MCU) devices running native RTOS systems.

Thread X requires a 2KB instruction area and 1KB of RAM for its minimal footprint. It supports a wide range of 32/64-bit microprocessors including ARM, Cypress (RISC-V) and Xilinx, to name a few.

“While we recommend Azure Sphere for customers' most secured connections to the cloud, where Azure Sphere isn't possible in highly constrained devices, we recommend Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS over other RTOS options in the industry because of its additional certifications and out-of-the-box connectivity to Azure IoT Hub," said Sam George, Microsoft's Director of Azure IoT in a blog post.

Express Logic has over 6.2 billion deployments in the world. Microsoft has committed to invest $5 billion in the IoT space by 2022 and this acquisition is part of that strategy.

04/23/2019