The Design of the Spring Kernel.

Abstract

NEXT GENERATION REAL-TIME SYSTEMS WILL REQUIRE GREATER FLEXIBILITY AND PREDICTABILITY THAN IS COMMONLY FOUND IN TODAY''S SYSTEMS. THESE FUTURE SYSTEMS INCLUDE THE SPACE STATION, INTEGRATED VISION/ROBOTICS/AI SYSTEMS, COLLECTIONS OF HUMANS/ROBOTS COORDINATING TO ACHIEVE COMMON OBJECTIVES (USUALLY IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS SUCH AS UNDERSEA EXPLORATION OR CHEMICAL PLANTS), AND VARIOUS COMMAND AND CONTROL APPLICATIONS. THE SPRING KERNEL IS A RESEARCH ORIENTED KERNEL DESIGNED TO FORM THE BASIS OF A FLEXIBLE, HARD REAL-TIME OPERATING SYSTEM FOR SUCH APPLICATIONS. OUR APPROACH PRO- VIDES A METHOD FOR ON-LINE DYNAMIC GUARANTEES OF DEADLINES. THIS PROVIDES MANY BENEFITS. THE MAIN CONTRIBUTIONS IN OUR APPROACH ARE THE SCHEDULING ALGORITHMS THEMSELVES, THE DESIGN OF THE KERNEL THAT ENABLES PREDICTABILITY OF EXECUTION TIME, AND THE SYNERGISM BETWEEN THE SCHEDULING ALGORITHM AND THE KERNEL DESIGN. THE SPRING KERNEL IS BEING IMPLEMENTED ON A NETWORK OF (68020 BASED) MULTIPROCESSORS CALLED SPRINGNET.