NetX Technical Features

NetX is Express Logic’s high-performance implementation of TCP/IP protocol standards. It is fully integrated with ThreadX and is available for all supported processors. NetX has a unique Piconet™ architecture. Combined with a zero-copy API, it makes it a perfect fit for today’s deeply embedded applications that require network connectivity.

Small Footprint

NetX is implemented as a C library. Only the features used by the application are brought into the final image. The minimal footprint of NetX is as small as 5KB on CISC processors.

Fast Response

With its non-layering Piconet™ architecture and zero-copy API, NetX's packet processing speed is second to none.

Easy To Use

NetX is very easy to use. The NetX API is both intuitive and highly functional. In addition, API names are made of real words and not the “alphabet soup” names that are common to other TCP/IP products. Building a NetX application is easy. Simply include the NX_API.H file in the application software and link the application objects with the NetX library. The resulting image is ready for execution – it’s that simple!

NetX Steps

No Mysteries

NetX is delivered with complete C source code so you can see exactly how NetX operates. If you are used to in-house TCP/IP stacks or had bad experiences with “black box” commercial products, this should be most comforting.

NetX Protocol Components

NetX provides a complete set of protocol components that comprise the TCP/IP standard,
including the following:

Flexible Packet Management
Internet Protocol (IP)
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP)
Reverse Address Resolution Protocol (RARP)
Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP)
Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP)
User Datagram Protocol (UDP)
Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)

NetX Application

Additional components, including TFTP, FTP, SNMP, PPP, PPPoE, SLIP, Telnet, DHCP, BootP, DNS, SMTP, POP3, HTML, HTTP, and a BSD-compatible socket layer, are also available for NetX.

Piconet™ Architecture

Many TCP/IP implementations have a considerable number of function calls sprinkled throughout the packet processing path. Although this is fine for workstation software, it is not acceptable for performance critical embedded applications. The elimination of layered function calls and loosely coupled protocol components is what we call a piconet architecture.

Zero-Copy API

NetX provides zero-copy TCP/IP communication to eliminate processor cycles consumed by moving data to and from user buffers. This results in very high performance and frees processor cycles back to the application for useful activities.

Flexible Packet Pool Management

The application may create any number of packet pools in any number of memory areas . These zero-copy packets can be linked with packets from the same pool or even a different pool to accommodate larger payloads.

UDP Fast Path Technology ™

Basic UDP packets pass through NetX without any copying and without any system context switches. Many commercial network stacks process all packets received within a system thread thereby adding a context switch to the packet overhead. In NetX, simple UDP packets are delivered directly to waiting threads.

Express Logic Gets You to Market First

Express Logic products are designed for ease-of-use. Everything from well thought out APIs to simple startup procedures help you get up and running in a matter of hours! This coupled with advanced debugger integration, make our products the easy choice to win the race to market!

Cost Comparison