You're reading from Hands-On RTOS with Microcontrollers Create high-performance, real-time embedded systems using FreeRTOS, STM32 MCUs, and SEGGER debug tools

Product type Paperback

Published in Sep 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781803237725

Length 570 pages

Edition 2nd Edition

Languages

Concepts

Operating Systems

Authors (2):

Jim Yuill

Penn Linder

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Table of Contents (27) Chapters

Preface

1. Part 1: Introduction to RTOSes, the Dev-Board, and Tools

2. Introducing Real-Time Systems FREE CHAPTER

3. Introducing the Development Board

4. Introducing the Development-Tools

5. Understanding Super-Loops

6. Implementing the Super-Loop

7. Part 2: The FreeRTOS Scheduler, Tasks, and Primary APIs

8. Understanding RTOS Tasks

9. Running the FreeRTOS Scheduler

10. Protecting Data and Synchronizing Tasks

11. Intertask Communication

12. Part 3: Using FreeRTOS to Build Systems

13. Drivers and ISRs

14. More Efficient Drivers and ISRs

15. Sharing Hardware Peripherals among Tasks

16. Creating Loose Coupling with Queues

17. Part 4: System Design and Troubleshooting

18. FreeRTOS Memory Management

19. Multi-Processor and Multi-Core Systems

20. Troubleshooting Tips and Next Steps

21. Part 5: Reference Information and FreeRTOS Installation

22. Other Books You May Enjoy

23. Index

Appendix A: Tools Quick-Reference

1. Appendix B: Reference Information

2. Appendix C: Creating FreeRTOS Projects, and Installing FreeRTOS

Understanding RTOS Tasks

In the last two chapters we saw how bare-metal firmware applications make use of the super-loop and the timed super-loop to perform their duties in real time. We also saw how a function can be broken up by using a state machine. This allows the super-loop to perform the function’s duties without preventing other functions from running in a timely manner. In this chapter, we introduce RTOS tasks and show how they make it possible for functions to perform their duties while meeting their deadlines.

The present chapter consists of three parts. The first part provides a conceptual view of the FreeRTOS scheduler and tasks. The second part describes how FreeRTOS was chosen for the book’s RTOS. The third part presents a FreeRTOS example-program, how to run it, and how to use SystemView to analyze task execution. FreeRTOS installation and configuration are also presented.

The technical requirements for this chapter are: