Developer Survey Shows Express Logic’s ThreadX® RTOS #1 in Time-To-Market Results

Survey of embedded developers shows effect of RTOS on project success.

San Jose, CA, April 04, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), today announced that its ThreadX RTOS ranked #1 in time-to-market in a recent survey of embedded developers. The survey, conducted by Electronic Market Forecasters, Inc., and Wilson Research Group in 2006, shows that RTOS selection can have a significant effect on timely project completion.

The survey was taken by more than 500 embedded developers, and revealed that a number of different RTOSes were used in various projects, some completed on schedule, some ahead of schedule, and the rest behind schedule. To determine the impact of RTOS selection on successful project completion and time-to-market, the survey posed a number of questions to these developers and project managers. Among these questions were:

a) “What RTOS did you use on this project?”
b) “How many lines of code were developed?”
c) “Was the project completed ahead of schedule, on-time, or late?”
d) “How many months ahead or behind schedule was the project completed?”

“RTOS selection proved to be a significant factor in project completion, and Express Logic’s ThreadX led the way with more than a 70% success rate,” observed Dr. Jerry Krasner, Chief Analyst, Embedded Market Forecasters. “It’s easy for developers to always think “more is better,” but the survey indicates that developers are best served by selecting an RTOS that is sufficient for their needs but not overly complex. Too rich a feature set for the particular application clearly results in projects taking more time to reach completion.”

The results were analyzed by RTOS, and each RTOS was scored according to the percentage of projects completed on-time or ahead of schedule (see Figure-1). Figure-1: EMF Developer Survey shows that RTOS selection has an impact on successful project completion.

Express Logic’s ThreadX RTOS resulted in more than 70% of its projects being completed on-time or ahead of schedule. With the industry average standing at only 59% and several other RTOS falling below 50%, ThreadX’s ease of use set it well ahead of the pack. Notably, those using in-house RTOSes succeeded only 49.3% of the time. Overall, ThreadX scored the #1 percentage of successful completion among all RTOSes reported.

“When I first saw the results, my initial assumption was that project size had to account for the differences between the vendors,” noted Krasner. “But, in analyzing the number of lines of code in each project, there was no correlation with the success rate of the project relative to its schedule. Certainly, it is understood that larger projects took longer to develop, but they also started with a longer schedule appropriate for the magnitude of the effort.”

The study reveals that the selection of one RTOS over another is likely to have an effect on project completion. The reason, the study concludes, is the “ease-of-use” of the RTOS, which makes it either harder or easier to develop code. RTOSes with better ease-of-use result in faster code development, speeding time to market.

The study concludes that a set of “Best Practices” can help development teams get products to market faster. Among these Best Practices are selection of an RTOS that is not overly complex compared to the needs of the project, lest its complexity slow down learning and correct use.

“We’ve always been proud of ThreadX’s easy-to-use API and its simple, straightforward design that would be helpful in getting products developed and to market fast,” commented William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. “Now, this survey gives quantitative evidence that this is the case, and that ThreadX can help developers get their products to market fast.”

Shipping and Availability
The full survey is available from Embedded Market Forecasters. Contact EMF at www.embeddedforecast.com. A free White Paper, discussing these time-to-market results, is downloadable from Express Logic’s web site at www.rtos.com.

About Express Logic
Headquartered in San Diego, CA, Express Logic offers the most advanced run-time solution for deeply embedded applications, including the popular ThreadX® RTOS, the high-performance NetX™ TCP/IP stack, the FileX® embedded MS-DOS compatible file system, and the USBX™ Host/Device USB protocol stack. All products from Express Logic include full source-code and have no run-time royalties. For more information about Express Logic solutions, please visit www.expresslogic.com, call 1-888-THREADX, or email inquires to sales@expresslogic.com.

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ThreadX and FileX are registered trademarks, and NetX, CANX, USBX, preemption-threshold, picokernel, UDP fast path technology, are trademarks of Express Logic, Inc. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders.
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