Using Open-source Eclipse ThreadX in a Real-time Embedded Systems Lab

This paper presents our recent experiences of teaching the "Real-time Embedded Systems Design" course by applying a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) called Eclipse ThreadX. It transitioned to free, open-source software from Microsoft Azure RTOS in 2023. This paper mainly covers how we adopted ThreadX as a real-world RTOS example in lab sessions, including lab tutorials, programming exercises, lab equipment setup, and course projects. Unlike real-time systems courses for computer science majors, we focus on teaching engineering majors (EE and CE) students the design and application development of real-time embedded systems from the practitioner's point of view. This real-time embedded systems design course is for senior and graduate students majoring in electrical and computer engineering. After completing this course, students are expected to demonstrate the ability to design and develop real-time systems for microcontroller-based embedded applications (i.e., STMicroelectronics IoT Discovery Kit). Project-based learning and hands-on learning are the primary teaching approaches employed in this course. Based on our teaching experiences. ThreadX is an RTOS with rich and unique features and utility tools for teaching real-time systems design and developing cloud-based IoT applications. This paper also summarizes our nearly 10 years of experience in teaching FreeRTOS, another widely used open source RTOS, and compares it with ThreadX. Our latest experiences show that combining Eclipse ThreadX and FreeRTOS can yield synergistic benefits in terms of teaching effectiveness.