Master the fundamental concepts of real-time embedded system programming and jumpstart your embedded projects with effective design and implementation practices. This book bridges the gap between higher abstract modeling concepts and the lower-level programming aspects of embedded systems development. You gain a solid understanding of real-time embedded systems with detailed practical examples and industry wisdom on key concepts, design processes, and the available tools and methods.
Delve into the details of real-time programming so you can develop a working knowledge of the common design patterns and program structures of real-time operating systems (RTOS). The objects and services that are a part of most RTOS kernels are described and real-time system design is explored in detail. You learn how to decompose an application into units and how to combine these units with other objects and services to create standard building blocks. A rich set of ready-to-use, embedded design “building blocks” is also supplied to accelerate your development efforts and increase your productivity.
Experienced developers new to embedded systems and engineering or computer science students will both appreciate the careful balance between theory, illustrations, and practical discussions. Hard-won insights and experiences shed new light on application development, common design problems, and solutions in the embedded space. Technical managers active in software design reviews of real-time embedded systems will find this a valuable reference to the design and implementation phases.
Qing Li is a senior architect at Wind River Systems, Inc., and the lead architect of the company’s embedded IPv6 products. Qing holds four patents pending in the embedded kernel and networking protocol design areas. His 12+ years in engineering include expertise as a principal engineer designing and developing protocol stacks and embedded applications for the telecommunications and networks arena. Qing was one of a four-member Silicon Valley startup that designed and developed proprietary algorithms and applications for embedded biometric devices in the security industry.
Caroline Yao has more than 15 years of high tech experience ranging from development, project and product management, product marketing, business development, and strategic alliances. She is co-inventor of a pending patent and recently served as the director of partner solutions for Wind River Systems, Inc.
About the Authors
14.4.1 Basic RMA Schedulability Test
14.4.1 Basic RMA Schedulability Test
Equation 14.1 is used to perform the basic RMA schedulability test on a system.
Ci = worst-case execution time associated with periodic task I
Ti= period associated with task i
n = number of tasks
U(n) is the utilization factor. The right side of the equation is the theoretical processor utilization bound. If the processor utilization for a given set of tasks is less than the theoretical utilization bound, this set of tasks is schedulable. The value of U decreases as n increases and eventually converges to 69% when n becomes infinite.
Let's look at a sample problem and see how the formula is implemented. Table 14.3 summarizes the properties of three tasks that are scheduled using the RMS.
Table 14.3: Properties of tasks.
| Periodic Task |
Execution Time |
Period (milliseconds) |
|---|
| Task 1 |
20 |
100 |
| Task 2 |
30 |
150 |
| Task 3 |
50 |
300 |
Using Equation 14.1, the processor utilization for this sample problem is calculated as follows
Total utilization for the sample problem is at 57%, which is below the theoretical bound of 77%. This system of three tasks is schedulable, i.e., every task can meet its deadline.
