Design and Benchmarking of Real-Time Multiprocessor Operating System Kernels

Multiprocessor architectures, operating systems and real-time technologies are all interesting and highly advanced topics. Real-time demands inject an additional correctness criterion into computer systems. It is not just the result that is important, timing issues also have to be considered. A multiprocessor system is able to provide more performance than today’s fastest single processor solution, and it is often in multiprocessor systems the latest technology is introduced. The operating system is without hesitation the most important software of all system programs in a real-time multiprocessor system. The main limitations and concerns reported so far from the rather young research area of real-time issues in multiprocessor systems, mainly consists of schedulability problems and anomalies with old single processor scheduling algorithms. The possibilities with moving real-time applications onto multiprocessor platforms on the other hand weight more; scalability, robustness, more and cheaper computing power are the general advantages. That real-time operating systems with multiprocessor support will become a desired product in the near future is a highly realistic prediction, since the requirements and complexity of real-time applications increases rapidly. In this survey we review and evaluate both commercial and research solutions that addresses all three attention-grabbing areas in a homogeneous manner. The paper first identifies the major design goals and key issues in multiprocessor realtime operating systems, to follow up with a set of case studies where the identified issues are unveiled. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Mälardalen University, March 2002. Design and Benchmarking of Real-Time Multiprocessor Operating System Kernels