What You Need to Know About RTOSes February 1, 2012 Jack Ganssle

Microprocesors, Advanced

The RTOS
The kernel the multitasker
The kernel handles tasking It also has resources to pass data between tasks safely, and to synchronize tasking.

An RTOS also has resources like communications, a GUI, a file system, and debugging tools.

Polled Loop
Wait for something

Do something

Polled Loop With Interrupts

Interrupt event Wait for interrupt Wait for something signal

Handle Interrupt Do something

Signal main loop

Enter the RTOS

Interrupt event Kernel

Handle Interrupt

Handle screen
Signal RTOS

Handle TCP/IP

Process data

When Do You Need an RTOS?

Multiple independent activities Communications File system GUIs

An Infusion Pump

What About Linux?

Memory needs Real-time response Reliability, validation and security Licensing issues Porting Linux is hard!

Multitasking and Tasks

void { App_TaskADC (void *p_arg) while (1) { ADC_Read(); OSTimeDly(10); } }

Multitasking and Tasks

void { App_TaskLowFluid (void *p_arg)

code to handle low fluid; OSTaskDel(. . .);

Task Creation
void main (void) { OSInit();

/* Kernel initialization */

OSTaskCreate(...); /* Task creation OSTaskCreate(...);

OSStart(); } /* Start multitasking */

*/

TCBs and Stacks

Task Control Block Stack pointer Task Priority Stack Registers Rest of stack

Task state
Other task data

Task States

Scheduling
Preemption
The suspension of one task and start of another

Context switching
The process of switching from one task to another

Round robin
The giving of equal time to all same-priority tasks

Round-Robin Scheduling

Priorities

Scheduling Points
When a task decides to wait for time to expire When a task sends a message or a signal to another task When an ISR sends a message or a signal to a task When a kernel object is deleted When the priority of a task is changed Other places

I/O Perils

Task 1 Hi There Terminal

Task 2 Howdy

HHio wTdhyere

The Mutex

Acquire_mutex; Access_device; Release_mutex;

Semaphores
AtoD_Read (uint16 *result) { start ADC conversion wait for semaphore Read A/D return result }

ADC_ISR (void) { release semaphore clear interrupt }

Message Queues

Rx ISR

Message queue

Serial Stream Rx Task

Roll Your Own?

Consider the cost of buying vs. cost to write Cost to validate Messaging and synchronization Modularity

Rate Monotonic Scheduling

If tasks are periodic, and do not share resources or sync with each other, then RMA says: n Time
if: E1/T1 + E2/T2 + E3/T3 <= n(2 1/n - 1) all hard real time deadlines will be met.
1 2 3 4 5 10000 1.000 0.828 0.780 0.757 0.743 0.693

// Task A if angle> 90 swap modes void a (void){ int raw; float angle; float scale=2*pi; raw=inport(encoder); angle=(float)raw * scale; if(angle>90)swap_mode; }

0013DA 0013DF 0013E2 0013E7 0013EA 0013EF 0013F2 0013F7 0013FC 0013FF

9A 83 9A FF 9A 83 9A 9A 83 9A

00 C4 00 76 00 C4 00 00 C4 00

00 04 00 FC 00 02 00 00 10 00

CALL ADD CALL PUSH CALL ADD CALL CALL ADD CALL

ddload SP,4 dpush WORD PTR [BP-4] dicvt SP,2 dpush drmul SP,16 dpush

k=(l1>l2); 000E8A 000E8D 000E90 000E93 000E95 000E97 000E9A 000E9C 000E9F 000EA1 000EA3 000EA6 8B 8B 3B 7F 7C 3B 76 B8 EB 2B 89 FF 56 46 56 07 0A 46 05 01 02 C0 46 46 CA C8 D6 MOV MOV CMP JG JL CMP JBE L42 MOV JMP L40 SUB L41 MOV INC DX,[BP-54] AX,[BP-56] DX,[BP-42] SHORT L42 SHORT L40 AX,[BP-44] SHORT L40 AX,1 L41 AX,AX BP-10],AX [BP-2]

D4
00

F6 FE

Talk to the vendors

Were mad as hell and were not gonna take it anymore!

Software Selection
CPU/Language/Tool compatibility Pricing model Source or object? Size and performance Debugging tools Services, drivers Other software components

Reputation/Tech Support Reliability

Questions?