1st Edition

Real-Time Systems Development with RTEMS and Multicore Processors

    534 Pages 98 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    534 Pages 98 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    The proliferation of multicore processors in the embedded market for Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) makes developing real-time embedded applications increasingly difficult. What is the underlying theory that makes multicore real-time possible? How does theory influence application design? When is a real-time operating system (RTOS) useful? What RTOS features do applications need? How does a mature RTOS help manage the complexity of multicore hardware?

    Real-Time Systems Development with RTEMS and Multicore Processors answers these questions and more with exemplar Real-Time Executive for Multiprocessor Systems (RTEMS) RTOS to provide concrete advice and examples for constructing useful, feature-rich applications. RTEMS is free, open-source software that supports multi-processor systems for over a dozen CPU architectures and over 150 specific system boards in applications spanning the range of IoT and CPS domains such as satellites, particle accelerators, robots, racing motorcycles, building controls, medical devices, and more.

    The focus of this book is on enabling real-time embedded software engineering while providing sufficient theoretical foundations and hardware background to understand the rationale for key decisions in RTOS and application design and implementation. The topics covered in this book include:

    • Cross-compilation for embedded systems development
    • Concurrent programming models used in real-time embedded software
    • Real-time scheduling theory and algorithms used in wide practice
    • Usage and comparison of two application programmer interfaces (APIs) in real-time embedded software: POSIX and the RTEMS Classic APIs
    • Design and implementation in RTEMS of commonly found RTOS features for schedulers, task management, time-keeping, inter-task synchronization, inter-task communication, and networking
    • The challenges introduced by multicore hardware, advances in multicore real-time theory, and software engineering multicore real-time systems with RTEMS

    All the authors of this book are experts in the academic field of real-time embedded systems. Two of the authors are primary open-source maintainers of the RTEMS software project.

    Chapter 1 Introduction

    PART I Operating System Basics
    Chapter 2 Cross-Compilation Toolchain
    2.1 From Source Code to the Executable Image
    2.2 Linker Scripts
    2.3 GNU Make and Makefiles
    2.4 Basic Description of RTEMS and its Configuration System
    2.5 Summary

    Chapter 3 Concurrent Programming and Scheduling Algorithms
    3.1 Foundations of Concurrent Programming
    3.2 Scheduling Policies, Mechanisms, and Algorithms
    3.3 Summary

    Chapter 4 Scheduling Analysis and Interrupt Handling
    4.1 Basics of Real-Time Scheduling Analysis
    4.2 Practical Considerations on Interrupt Handling
    4.3 Summary

    PART II Task Management and Timekeeping
    Chapter 5 Task Management and Timekeeping, Classic API
    5.1 Task Management Basics
    5.2 Scheduler Manager and Single-Core Scheduling Algorithms
    5.3 RTEMS Classic and POSIX API
    5.4 Task Management
    5.5 The Rate Monotonic Manager
    5.6 Timekeeping: Clocks and Timers
    5.7 Preemption and Interrupt Management
    5.8 Summary

    Chapter 6 Task Management and Timekeeping, POSIX API
    6.1 Attribute Objects
    6.2 Thread Creation and Termination
    6.3 Thread Scheduling
    6.4 Forced Thread Termination (Cancellation)
    6.5 Signal Handling
    6.6 Timekeeping
    6.7 Summary

    PART III InterTask Synchronization and Communication
    Chapter 7 Inter-Task Synchronization and Communication (IPC) Based on Shared Memory
    7.1 Race Conditions and Mutual Exclusio
    7.2 Semaphores
    7.3 Monitors
    7.4 RTEMS API for Shared-Memory IPC
    7.5 Barriers
    7.6 Events
    7.7 Summary

    Chapter 8 IPC, Task Execution, and Scheduling
    8.1 Priority Inversion
    8.2 Deadlock
    8.3 Summary

    Chapter 9 IPC Based on Message Passing
    9.1 Unified Synchronization and Data Exchange
    9.2 Message Passing Synchronization Models
    9.3 Direct and Indirect Naming
    9.4 RTEMS API for Message Passing
    9.5 Summary

    PART IV Network Communication
    Chapter 10 Network Communication in RTEMS
    10.1 Internal Structure of the RTEMS Networking Code
    10.2 Protocol Stack Organization
    10.3 Main Data Structures
    10.4 RTEMS Port and Adaptation Layer
    10.5 Summary

    Chapter 11 POSIX Sockets API
    11.1 Main Features
    11.2 Communication Endpoint Management
    11.3 Local Socket Address
    11.4 Connection Establishment
    11.5 Connectionless Sockets
    11.6 Data Transfer
    11.7 Socket Options
    11.8 Non-Blocking I/O and Synchronous I/O Multiplexing
    11.9 Summary

    PART V Multicores in Realtime Embedded Systems
    Chapter 12 Multicores in Embedded Systems
    12.1 Motivation
    12.2 Multiprocessors and Multicores
    12.3 Software Challenges Introduced by Multicores
    12.4 Summary

    Chapter 13 Multicore Concurrency: Issues and Solutions
    13.1 Classes of Multicore Scheduling Algorithms
    13.2 Multicore Scheduling Algorithms in RTEMS
    13.3 Schedulers Configuration
    13.4 Multicore Synchronization Devices
    13.5 Lock-Free and Wait-Free Communication
    13.6 Spinlocks and Interrupt Handling Synchronization
    13.7 Summary

    References
    Index

    Biography

    Gedare Bloom works at the Department of Computer Science at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs as an Assistant Professor. Since 2011 Professor Bloom has been a maintainer for the RTEMS open-source hard real-time OS, which is used in robotics frameworks, unmanned vehicles, satellites and space probes, automotive, defense, building automation, medical devices, industrial controllers, and more.

    Joel Sherrill joined On-Line Applications Research Corporation in 1989 and is currently the Director of Research and Development. He is one of the original developers of the free real-time operating system RTEMS and current project lead.

    Tingting Hu works as a research scientist in the University of Luxembourg with the Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine. She also works as industrial consultant for leading national industries in the provision of software design solutions for real-time embedded systems, in the domain of industrial ovens, building automation and motion control.

    Ivan Cibrario Bertolotti is associated with the Istituto di Elettronica e di Ingegneria dell’Informazione e delle Telecomunicazioni (IEIIT), Turin, Italy.