T-crest: a Time-predictable Multi-core Platform for Aerospace Applications

Space systems are hard real-time systems, where the worst-case execution time (WCET) of tasks needs to be known to prove absence of deadline misses. For simple processor and memory architectures it is possible to statically derive a safe upper bound of the WCET. However, future requirements in more autonomous missions require more processing power. This increase in processing power is approached by multi-core processors. However, current multi-core processors are not WCET analyzable. The mission of T-CREST is to develop tools and build a multi-core system that provides high performance, but be WCET analyzable. The T-CREST time-predictable system will simplify the safety argument with respect to the maximum execution time and increase the performance with multi-core technology. Thus the T-CREST system will result in lower costs for safety-relevant applications, reducing system complexity, simultaneously providing faster time-predictable execution. Most of the T-CREST technology is available in open-source.