RTOS Real-Time Operating System

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1 RTOS Real-Time Operating System What is a real-time system? A real-time system is any information processing system which has to respond to externally generated input stimuli within a finite and specified period the correctness depends not only on the logical result but also the time it was delivered failure to respond is as bad as the wrong response! The computer is a component in a larger engineering system => EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEM 99% of all processors are for the embedded systems market [ Alan Burns & Andy University of York ] [ Stephem A. Synopsys, Inc. ] [ Kang G. University of Michigan ] SoC - rtos - 1 Terminology Hard real-time - systems where it is absolutely imperative that responses occur within the required deadline. E.g. Flight control systems. Soft real-time - systems where deadlines are important but which will still function correctly if deadlines are occasionally missed. E.g. Data acquisition system. Real real-time - systems which are hard real-time and which the response times are very short. E.g. Missile guidance system. Firm real-time - systems which are soft real-time but in which there is no benefit from late delivery of service. A single system may have all hard, soft and real real-time subsystems in reality many systems will have a cost function associated with missing each deadline SoC - rtos - 2

2 Operating Systems An operating system is a program that provides an environment for executing other programs, often providing facilities for I/O, a filesystem, networking, virtual memory, and multitasking: a way to run multiple program concurrently on a single processor. Task scheduling policies timesharing - the main goal is fairness: providing similar interactive response times for all running processes real-time OS - the main objective is to meet deadline, i.e., to make sure each process that must complete by a certain time does so. SoC - rtos - 3 Timesharing Systems The scheduler s goal is to provide all processes with acceptable interactive performance. Fairness is the objective: no one user should be able to monopolize the processor s resources at the expense of others. Timeslices are used usually Combined with priority numbers SoC - rtos - 4

3 Real-Time Operating Systems Deadlines - missing a deadline in a hard real-time system can be catastrophic (nuclear power plant, aircraft control surfaces, etc.) RTOSs try to meet deadline using a simple principle - suspending low-priority processes when one with higher priority starts Four main functions Process management and synchronization Memory management IPC I/O Must also support predictability and real-time constraints SoC - rtos - 5 Real-Time Scheduling Collection of tasks, each with a initiation time, a deadline, an execution time, and a period Sporadic tasks - assumed to be periodic with a minimum period Rate-Monotonic Scheduling (RM) Single processor, fixed-priority tasks, no communication, preemptive scheduler Task with the shortest deadline has the highest priority Suffers from ignoring the dynamic behavior of the system - it is designed for the worstcase situation P 1 P 2 P 3 B A C Σ B A B C SoC - rtos - 6

4 Other Scheduling Approaches Earliest Deadline First (EDF) - dynamic reordering of priorities Problems with cyclic time-slice schedulers poor aperiodic response time long schedules Problems with common priority-driven schedulers EDF: High run-time overheads RM: High schedulability overheads Combined Static and Dynamic Scheduling (CDS) Two task queues Dynamic Priority (DP) scheduled by EDF Fixed Priority (FP) scheduled by RM CSD has near zero schedulability overhead Most EDF schedulable task sets can work under CSD SoC - rtos - 7 RTOS for SoC Small memories, slow processors Small-memory embedded systems used everywhere automobiles factory automation and avionics home appliances telecommunication devices, PDAs,... Massive volumes (10K-10M units) --> Saving even a few dollars per unit is important: cheap, low-end processors (Motorola 68K, Hitachi SH-2) max KB SRAM, often on-chip low-cost networks, e.g., Controller Area Network (CAN) SoC - rtos - 8

5 RTOS for Small-Memory Embedded Systems Despite restrictions, must perform increasingly complex functions General-purpose RTOSs (VxWorks, psos, QNX) too large or inefficient Some vendors provide smaller RTOSs (psos Select, RTXC, Nucleus) by carefully handcrafting code to get efficiency RTOS Requirements Code size ~ 10 kb Must provide all basic OS services: IPC, task synchronization, scheduling, I/O All aspects must be re-engineered to suit small-memory embedded systems: API IPC, synchronization, and other OS mechanisms Task scheduling Networking SoC - rtos - 9 Minimizing Kernel Size Location of resources known allocation of threads on nodes compile-time allocation of mailboxes, etc., so no naming services Memory-resident applications: no disks or file systems Simple messages e.g., sensor readings, actuator commands often can directly interact with network device driver Reducing Kernel Execution Overhead Task Scheduling: EDF, RM can consume 10-15% of CPU Task Synchronization: semaphore operations incur context switch overheads - Intertask Communication: often exchange 1000 s of short messages, especially if OO is used SoC - rtos - 10

6 Message Passing Tasks in embedded systems may need to exchange thousands of short messages per second Traditional IPC mechanisms (e.g., mailbox-based IPC) do not work well high overheads no broadcast to send to multiple receivers For efficiency, application writers forced to use global variables to exchange information Not safe if access to global variables unregulated SoC - rtos - 11 State Messages Uses single-writer, multiple-reader paradigm Writer-associated state message mailbox (SMmailbox) A new message overwrites previous message Reads do not consume messages Reads and writes are non-blocking, synchronization-free Read and write operations through user-level macros Much less overhead than traditional mailboxes A tool generates customized macros for each state message Problem with global variables: a reader may read a half-written message as there is no synchronization Solution: N-deep circular message buffer for each state message pointer is updated atomically after write if writer has period 1 ms and reader 5 ms, then N=6 suffices New Problem: N may need to be in the 100 s SoC - rtos - 12

7 Memory Protection Needed for fault-tolerance, isolating bugs Embedded tasks have small memory footprints Can use just 1 or 2 page tables from lowest level of hierarchy Use common upper-level tables to conserve kernel memory Map kernel into all task address spaces Minimize user-kernel copying as task data and pointers accessible to kernel Reduce system call overheads to little more than for function calls SoC - rtos - 13 Proprietary Kernels Small and fast commercial RTOSs: QNX, psos, VxWorks, Nucleus, ERCOS, EMERALDS, Windows CE,... Fast context switch and interrupt response Small in size No virtual memory and can lock code & data in memory Multitasking and IPC via mailboxes, events, signals, and semaphores How to support real-time constraints bounded primitive exec time real-time clock priority scheduling special alarms and timeouts Standardization via POSIX RT extensions SoC - rtos - 14

8 RT Extensions RT-UNIX,RT-LINUX, RT-MACH, RT-POSIX Slower, less predictable, but more functions and better development environments RT-POSIX: timers, priority scheduling, rt files, semaphores, IPC, async event notification, process memory locking, threads, async and sync I/O Problems: coarse timers, system interface and implementation, long interrupt latency, FIFO queues, no locking pages in memory, no predictable IPC Research RTOSs Support RT scheduling algorithms and timing analysis RT sync primitives, e.g., priority ceiling Predictability over average performance Support for fault-tolerance and I/O Examples: Spring, Mars, HARTOS, MARUTI, ARTS, CHAOS, EMERALDS SoC - rtos - 15

Embedded Systems. 6. Real-Time Operating Systems

Embedded Systems. 6. Real-Time Operating Systems Embedded Systems 6. Real-Time Operating Systems Lothar Thiele 6-1 Contents of Course 1. Embedded Systems Introduction 2. Software Introduction 7. System Components 10. Models 3. Real-Time Models 4. Periodic/Aperiodic