Characteristics of

Real-Time Systems

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10-Aug-19
 What is a Real-Time
System?
• A system is called real-time:
 Whenever we need to quantitatively
express time to describe its
behaviour.
• Recall how to describe the
behaviour of a system?
 List inputs to the system and the
corresponding system response. 2
10-Aug-19
 Important Characteristics
• An embedded system responds to events.

External Process External

Input Event New Data Output Event

Example: An Automobile airbag system.

When the airbag’s motion sensors detect a
collision, the system needs to respond by
deploying the airbag within 10ms or less.
– or the system fails! 3
10-Aug-19
 Embedded Systems = Hardware +
RTOS +Application Program
SOFTWARE
ELECTROMECHANICAL
BACKUP & SAFETY
RTOS MEMORY

SENSORS
A/D
CONVERSION CPU D/A
CONVERSION
ACTUATORS

AUXILLARY
HUMAN DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEMS
INTERFACE PORT (POWER,
COOLING)‫‏‬

External
Environment
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 How is Real-Time OS Different
from Traditional OS?
• An embedded system responds to
external inputs:
 If response is late, the system fails.
• General purpose OS:
 Not designed for real-time use
• Real-time OS:
 Helps tasks meet their deadline.
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10-Aug-19
 Characteristics of An
Embedded System
•Real-time:
• Some tasks are real-time
• Each real-time task is associated with
some time constraints, e.g. a Deadline.
•Correctness Criterion:
• Results should be logically correct,
• And within the stipulated time.
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10-Aug-19
 Characteristics of an
Embedded System cont…
• Safety and Task Criticality:
 A critical task is one whose failure
causes system failure (example:
obstacle avoidance).
 A safe system does not cause damage.
 A safety-critical real-time system is
one where any failure causes severe
damage. 7
10-Aug-19
 Characteristics of an
Embedded System cont…
• Concurrency:
 A RT system needs to respond to
several independent events.
 Typically separate tasks process each
independent event.
 For the same inputs, the result can be
different (Non-determinism).
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 Characteristics of
Embedded Systems cont…
• Distributed and Feedback
Structure
• Custom Hardware:
 An embedded system is often
implemented on custom H/W that
is specially designed and developed
for the purpose.
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10-Aug-19
 Characteristics of
Embedded Systems
Actuator Sensor

Embedded System
Actuator Sensor
Computation
Processing Processing

Environment

Feedback structure of real-time systems

10-Aug-19
 Characteristics of Embedded
Systems cont…
• Reactive:
 On-going interaction between
computer and environment.
• Stability:
 Under overload conditions, at least
the important tasks should perform
acceptably.
• Exception Handling: 11
10-Aug-19
 Safety and Reliability
•A safe system:
• Does not cause damage even when it
fails.
•A reliable system:
• Operates for long time without any
failure.
•Independent concepts in traditional
systems.
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10-Aug-19
 Safety and Reliability
• In traditional systems:
• Safety and reliability are
independent concerns.
 A system can be safe and unreliable
and vice versa.
 Give examples of:
• A safe and unreliable system
• A reliable and unsafe system
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10-Aug-19
 Safety and Reliability
cont…
• Interrelated in safety-critical
system.
 A safety critical system is one
for which any failure of the
system would result in severe
damage.
• Safety can be ensured only
through increased reliability. 14
10-Aug-19
 Safety and Reliability
• An unreliable system can be made
safe upon a failure:
 By reverting to a fail-safe state.
• A fail-safe state:
 No damage can result if a system
fails in this state.
 Example: For a traffic light, all
lights orange and blinking.
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10-Aug-19
 Fail-Safe State
• The fail-safe state of a word
processing program:
 The document being processed has
been saved onto the disk.
• Fail-safe states help separate the
issues of safety and reliability.
 Even if a system is unreliable, it can
always be made to fail in a fail-safe
state.
10-Aug-19
16
 Safety and Reliability
• For a safety-critical system
 No fail-safe state exists.
• Consider the navigation system on an
aircraft:
• When the navigation system fails:
• Shutting down the engine can be of
little help!
 As a result, for a safety-critical
system:
• The only way to achieve safety is by
making it reliable.
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 Safety-Critical Systems
• A safety-critical system:
• One for which a failure can cause
severe damages.
• A safety-critical system does
not have any fail-safe states:
 Safety can only be ensured through
increased reliability.
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 How to Design a Highly
Reliable System?
–Error Avoidance
–Error Detection and
Removing
–Fault Tolerance
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10-Aug-19
 Fault Tolerance in RT
System
• The essential idea:
 Provide redundancy
• Hardware Fault-Tolerance:
 Masks the effects of a hardware
fault.
• Software Fault-Tolerance:
 Masks the effects of a program
fault.
10-Aug-19
20
 Fault Tolerance in RT
System
– Hardware FT:
• Built in self test (BIST)‫‏‬
• Triple modular redundancy
– Software FT:
• N-Version programming
• Recovery Blocks
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 Triple Modular Redundancy

C1 V
O
T
C2 I Majority Result
N
C3 G

C1, C2 and C3 are redundant copies of a component

10-Aug-19
 N-version Programming
• Software fault tolerance technique
inspired by TMR of hardware:
 Different teams are employed to
develop the same software.
 Unsatisfactory performance in
practice.
 Reason: Faults are correlated in the
different versions.
 All versions fail for similar reasons. 23
10-Aug-19
 Recovery Blocks
TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4 exception
input
result result

TB: try block

test test test test

failure
success success failure

result

Software Fault Tolerance using recovery blocks

10-Aug-19
Modern Embedded Systems
Application
Analog
Specific HW
I/O

Processor
Cores Memory

• Embedded systems incorporate:

 Application-specific hardware (ASICs, FPGAs
etc.)‫‏‬
• performance, low power
 Programmable processors: DSPs, controllers etc.
 Mechanical transducers and actuators 25
10-Aug-19
 Block Diagram of An
Embedded System
controller
control panel processes

Real-time
ASIC UI
Processor OS
processes

DSP Programmable DSP

Programmable
Assembly DSP Assembly
DSP
Code Code

Dual-ported
CODEC
RAM

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10-Aug-19
 Why Have an OS in an
Embedded Device?
• Support for:
 Multitasking, scheduling, and synchronization
 Timing aspects.
 Memory management
 File systems
 Networking
 Graphics displays
 Interfacing wide range of I/O devices
 Scheduling and buffering of I/O operations
 Security and power Management 27
10-Aug-19
 Why Have an OS in an
Embedded Device?
• Example: A recent cell phone operating system
contained over five million lines of code!
• Few, if any projects will have the time and
funding:
 To develop all of this code on their own!
• Typical Embedded OS license fees are a few
dollars per device –-- less than a desktop OS
• Some very simple low-end devices might not need
an OS:
 But new devices are getting more complex.
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10-Aug-19
What is Actually Being Used?
• What Types of Processors are used?
• What Operating Systems are used?
• What Programming Languages are
used?
• Will examine data from a 2006 Market
Survey of design engineers:
 Embedded Systems Design Magazine.
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10-Aug-19
 Processor Bit Size Used
in New Embedded Designs
64-bit

32-bit

16-bit

8-bit

4-bit

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Data was derived from EETimes and Embedded Systems Design Magazine 2006 Embedded Market Survey

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10-Aug-19
Processor Architectures Widely
Used in New Embedded Designs
• ARM
• X86
• PowerPC
• MIPS
• Xscale (ARM)‫‏‬
• Renesas SuperH
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10-Aug-19
 32-64 bit Annual
Processor Sales
Processor Sales Volume

ARM

X86

MIPS

SuperH

PowerPC

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00%Based20.00%

on 2002 sales25.00%
data 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%

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10-Aug-19
 Number of Processors Used
in New Embedded Designs

1 Processor

2 Processors

3-5 Processors

More Than 5

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00%

Data was derived from EETimes and Embedded Systems Design Magazine 2006 Embedded Market Survey

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10-Aug-19
 Processor Selection Issues
• Software Support
 OS, Compilers, Debug Tools, Applications
• Price
• Performance
• Power
 Battery Life (MIPS/Watt), Cooling
(Fan?)‫‏‬
• Desktop PC 100 W vs. Battery power 200 mw
• Availability
 Long term availability, Multiple Vendors?
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10-Aug-19
 Use of Real-Time OS Kernels
in New Embedded Designs

Commercial OS

None

Internally Developed

Open Source

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00%

Data was derived from EETimes and Embedded Systems Design Magazine 2006 Embedded Market Survey

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10-Aug-19
 Pros and Cons of Open
Source OS
• Embedded devices are
extremely cost sensitive:
 Even a $1 license fee per device
can make a product
uncompetitive.
• For satisfactory performance:
 The source code often needs to
be fine tuned.
10-Aug-19
36
 Open Source OS: Cons
• “Free” OS can increase product
development cost:
 More time to develop device drivers, increased
labor cost.
 More than offset the commercial OS license
fees saved.
• Some other licenses may still required:
 Encoders & decoders, encryption, media player
• Open source license model may require:
 That you publish your device’s source code
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10-Aug-19
 Commercial Operating Systems
used in New Embedded Designs

Microsoft Emb.
Wind River
Symbian
Green Hills
Palm
Others

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00%

Data was derived from EETimes and Embedded Systems Design Magazine 2006 Embedded Market Survey

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10-Aug-19
 Programming Languages Used
in New Embedded Designs
C

C++

C#

Java

Assembly

Others

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00%

Data was derived from EETimes and Embedded Systems Design Magazine 2006 Embedded Market Survey
60.00% 70.00%

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10-Aug-19
 Future of Embedded
Systems
• Use of multi-core processors:
 Present operating systems and
tools do not make satisfactory
utilization of the multiple cores.
• Support of wireless and mobile
Internet.
• Power minimization.
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10-Aug-19