What's New at MPE?

Last updated: 7 December 2009

PC Software
Embedded Systems Tools
CPU boards and hardware
News, Gossip and Rumour
Forth books
Southampton area services
USA phone number 901-313-4312 - rings in UK

PC software

VFX Forth version 4.4

The VFX Forth v4.4 releases are the result of a six-month development with a focus on the Forth200x standard which should be released as a public draft in early 2010. Modifications to the VFX code generator have been made to reduce problems with particularly "guru" code. With the new tokeniser, the v4.4 code generator produces code that benchmarks faster than that of v4.2.

See our benchmarks.

See the release notes.

VFX Forth for Windows

Download the latest free trial version.

fJACK Audio interface

Customer comments
"I know a lot of compilers are free but speaking freely, this is one of the best darn things I've spent money on."

"GUIgen is the best and most useful bit of code I've seen in a very long time." More about GUIgen

"I just wanted to write and congratulate you on your VFX Forth. What a wonderful system you folks have developed! I recently downloaded the evaluation version of VFX and rewrote a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation that I had originally written for xxxxx. What a difference! Under xxxxx, a single run of the simulation takes over an hour on my computer. Under VFX, the same simulation completes in less than 4 minutes."

"I am actually VERY impressed with VFX Forth for Windows's code generation ... you have a fantastic product."

VFX Forth for Linux

Minos and Theseus GUI designer

fJACK Audio interface

VFX Forth for Linux is built from the same code base as VFX Forth for Windows, and includes the same VFX code generator and other tools. There is direct support for ELF executable file generation and access to all functions in shared libraries such as libc is available. See the release notes.

Customer comments
"I am in awe of how fast VFX Linux Forth is. My experience is in the distant past with ... and more recently G... so I am not used to the optimized code produced by VFX. Very nice!"

" ... impressed by the features of the Vfx, and the fact that you have a *REAL* manual."

Free downloads of the evaluation version are available from the Southampton server. Login as "public" with a blank password. The 32 bit VFX Forth for Linux version is available in rpm and deb packages for 32 bit and 64 bit Linux variants, and a tarball. VFX Forth for Linux is suitable for all x86 32 and 64 bit Linux distributions.

The paid-for versions (Standard, Developer and Mission editions) include kernels for the 386/486 class CPUs used by many embedded x86 systems. VFX Forth for Linux runs very well on lightweight systems such as the Ebox2300 family with a 200Mhz or 300MHz CPU.

VFX Forth for DOS

VFX Forth for DOS is built from the same source tree as VFX Forth for Windows, and includes the same VFX code generator, graphics and other tools. VFX Forth for DOS is mainly used for embedded applications. The PowerNet TCP/IP stack is available. For more details see our PowerNet page.

The version 4 releases are available with the same pricing as VFX Forth for Windows. Contact us for further details.

See the release notes.

Customer comment:
"I continue to be astonished at the quantum leap the VFX software suite has taken from ProForth. It's been difficult to make the right choices during the conversion, without over-indulging, like a kid in the sweet shop not wanting to miss anything that could be potentially delicious."

Embedded systems tools

Forth 7 Cross Compilers

Windows and Linux versions available

USB target code v2

Forth 7 cross compiler and targets

Version 7 of the MPE Forth cross compiler compiles five to ten times faster than its v6 predecessors, now producing about 500 kb of binary code per second. There are many detail improvements to the compilers and the target code.

The first major item for users of 32 bit targets is the USB client interface. Your embedded system can be a memory stick or a virtual COM port or both (composite device). The code has been structured so that the hardware drivers are independent of the USB core layer and the class layer. Version 2 supports DMA operation for increased speed and reduced interrupt overhead.

The Mass Storage Class (memory stick) and Communications Device Class (virtual serial port) drivers require no installation of additional operating system drivers. Sample INF files are provided for Windows. The code has been tested with Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

The second major item for users of 32 bit targets is the FAT filing system supporting removable media such as SD/MMC cards through SPI, CompactFlash and USB memory sticks. FAT 12, 16, and 32 are supported, auto-detecting at initialisation.

When ordering, please specify whether you want the Windows or the Linux version.

The ARM compilers produce faster code (15% average over v6.3) and ARM9 targets get a further improvement. More target configurations are available for Atmel ARM7 and ARM9 CPUs, the STR9 family is supported, and new drivers are available including SPI for the FAT filing system. The MSP430 compiler and target code have been overhauled, and the 68HC12 has improved paging support.

The Windows or Linux hosted Forth 7 Cross Compilers provide a complete interactive development system for embedded targets. MPE's VFX optimising code generators are part of most version 7 compilers, producing excellent code quality and density. Customer comments include "Wow!" and "How do you do that?". As always, floating point, multi-tasking, full target source code, manuals and technical support are included as part of the package. Most compilers can be supplied with evaluation boards and prepackaged software configurations. For a complete list of targets, please visit our Forth 7 page.

A customer says:"
"My co-workers kept asking, "how can you do that?". I tell them it is the good tool, they think I'm good, too bad I don't use the C compiler!"

A user commented on a news group:
"Wow, your documentation is the best I've seen for any Forth system."

A customer commented on the 68xxx compiler:
"I'm impressed with the VFX code generator!! Did not see any reason to re-code them in assembly."
"... cross compiler has proven to be an excellent tool, thanks again to you and your staff for a product well done."

Previous compiler versions

We are aware that embedded systems can have extremely long development and production lives. Consequently, we make previous compiler versions available where there is no direct upgrade path. The Forth 6, Forth 5 and Forth 4 cross compilers are still supported where Forth 7 compilers are not available; see the pricelist.

PowerNet v4 TCP/IP stack

The PowerNet v4 stack for the v7.x Cross Compilers is available with remote firmware update capability. New DHCP and SNTP clients allow more automatic configuration at powerup. A new set of client-side service examples ease talking to remote web sites. Maintenance and production configuration tools are provided to reduce setup costs.

PowerNet is strong enough to be used on internet-facing sites with no firewall or other security measures.

For more details see our PowerNet page.

Version 5 with SOAP, XML and web services is in preparation. Web services enable embedded systems to be interrogated by and to exchange information with applications such as Excel and Project.

CANopen implementation

The CAN fieldbus is popular in many industries requiring high reliability. This implementation for Forth 6 compilers was originally developed for railway control systems, and is released as a cross compiler extension. Please contact us directly for more information.

RTX-2000 returns!

The RTX-2000 and RTX-2010 CPUs from Intersil were dual stack CPUs with fast and deterministic real time behaviour, but are no longer available. Now the significantly faster RTXcore is available for incorporation into FPGAs. In a Xilinx Spartan 2E, the VHDL clean-room implementation gives twice the original performance at lower cost, and includes an on-chip UART. The current software development tools work unchanged.

Boards and Hardware

Embedded and Indrustrial PCs

Low-cost fanless PCs.

There's a revolution happening in industrial and networking PCs. Prices have fallen to the point where many industrial applications can be developed faster using standard Linux or Windows tools such as VFX Forth running on low-cost PCs rather than dedicated hardware.

Low volume applications that do not require specialised I/O are particularly suitable for this approach. The PCs that we supply have no moving parts and can boot from a USB memory stick or a Compact Flash card. They are available with 300MHz 486SX class (no FPU) and 1GHz P5 class (with FPU) CPUs.

ARM JTAG Widget

ARM7, ARM9, Thumb and JTAG daisy chain support.

The ARM JTAG Widget provides hardware and scripting software for debugging application software and hardware on ARM CPUs. It is ideal for hardware debug and bring-up, low-level software debug and production programming of your boards. After many years of frustration with existing tools for ARM hardware and firmware development, this is the tool we need. We use it every day ourselves. Ten times faster than some other proucts.

USB ARM Stamp

The MPE USB ARM Stamp is a small board (80 by 48 mm, 3.2 by 1.9 inches) containing a powerful CPU, Flash, SRAM, peripherals, and a user-programmable CPLD. The Flash is supplied containing a multi-tasking operating system and Forth compiler/interpreter. Applications can be developed and run entirely on the board itself, and turnkey applications can be saved to excute at power up. Everything, including Flash programming, is handled through the USB connection, which also provides all power needed by the USB ARM Stamp. Windows USB drivers are provided on the development CD. Mac, Linux, Free BSD and Open BSD drivers are available by free download. A seriously fast bit of hardware. Just plug one into a USB port and go.

NMIN2106-USB

Very similar to the MPE USB ARM Stamp, but with a prototyping area and the USB connection is through the second serial port which is user selectable between RS232 and USB.

Tini2106™ and Tini2138™

A tiny board using the same ARM CPU as our ARM USB Stamp and with very similar on-board software. Use the 1" by 1.3" (25mm by 33mm) board as a component in your hardware. Now available with a choice of LPC2106 or 2138 CPUs.

Free ARM Forth for Philips LPC2xxx CPUs

A free Forth system with 125 page manual for all Philips LPC2xxx CPUs with at least 64k Flash and 16k RAM and cystal frequency of 10, 12, or 14.7456 MHz.

Download lpcforth.zip.
UnZip the files.
Flash the file for the required cystal speed.
Reset CPU to run Forth

Galep-4/5 and ALL-100 rogrammers

We supply the Galep-4 pocket programmer, and the Galep-5 and ALL-100 lab programmers. The Galep-5 adds in-system programming and the ALL-100 provides the widest range of devices and exemplary technical support.

In development: Embedded USB host

Embedded USB hosts permit access to a wide range of low-cost devices such as memory sticks for mass storage. StickHost is the first of a range of USB host products. The small board connects to a host system by an RS232, SPI or 8 bit parallel connection and provides a simple software interface to a memory stick. An expanded version includes a FAT filing system.

Jobs at MPE

Visit this page to find out about current openings at MPE and our clients.