1. Realtime System Fundamentals
B. Ramamurthy
1/11/2019

2. Review of Project Plans
Hardware modifications (proof of concept done)
Software to generate xinu.boot
Cross compiler (host system to MIPS)
gcc is now available at /projects/bina/NEXOS/CSE321
We will have it installed on Linux machines at 206 Franzack
And on a Linux laptop
You can use this to compile the software you write for shell and drivers and anything else you add to exinu.
Uploading xinu.boot to test your shell and drivers:
You can do it from any system with a serial port , hyperterminal and tftp installed. Such a setup will be available in the Franzack lab and is currently available during recitation/lecture on Tuesdays at 340 Bell.
1/11/2019

3. Realtime scheduling We discussed realtime system scheduling:
Earliest deadline scheduling (EDS)
Starting deadline
Completion deadline
Dynamic priority scheduling
Rate monotonic scheduling (RMS)
Periodic tasks are prioritized by the frequency of repetition (high priority to tasks with shorter periods)
Preemptive scheduling
Fixed priority scheduling
See table 3.3
Schedulability according to RMS
Σ(Ci/Ti) <= n(21/n-1)
Cyclic executives (pre-scheduled)
Concepts of hyper-period and frame
Hyper-period is a the repeated loop
Pages 92-93
Exercises: 3.13 – 3.17
1/11/2019

4. Intertask communication and synchronization
Buffering data:
For inter-task communication
For sending data
To handle incompatibilities between tasks typically a buffer is introduced
Classical buffer (fig. 2.11)
Double buffer (fig. 2.12)
Ring buffer (fig. 2.13)
Mail boxes
1/11/2019

5. Mailboxes
Mailboxes are intertask communication device available in many commercial operating systems.
A mailbox is a memory location that one or more tasks can use to pass data or for synchronization.
post and pend are used for mailbox write and read
1/11/2019

6. Mailbox implementation
List of tasks and needed resources (mailboxes, printers etc.) is kept along with a second table of list of resources and their state (tables 3.6, and 3.7)
taskID
Resource
Status
100
printer
Has it
102
Mailbox 1
104
Mailbox 2
pending
resource
status
owner
printer
busy
100
Mailbox 1
102
Mailbox 2
empty
none
1/11/2019

7. Mailbox implementation (contd)
Task 104 requests mailbox 2 “pend” or “read”;
It blocks waiting for read.
Operating system checks task table, if “key” is full or available for mailbox 2, then it unblocks Task 104 and lets it read from mailbox 2;
Task 104 reads from mailbox 2 and set it “key” back to empty.
Accept is another function for mailbox; it is a non-blocking call; it reads data if available or it fails
1/11/2019

8. Task states Ready, running and blocked Critical regions
Semaphores for protection of critical regions
Identify the critical region and enclose it with p() and v() operators of the semaphore
Lets look at an example of implementation of mailboxes using semaphores
1/11/2019

9. Mailboxes using semaphores
Semaphore mutex, proc_sem;
Bool full, empty;
void post(int mailbox, int message)
{ wait(mutex);
if (empty_slots){
insert(mailbox, message);
update;
signal(mutex);
signal(proc_sem); }
else {// no empty slots; wait for empty slots
wait(proc_sem);
wait(mutex);
insert(mailbox,message);
update();
signal(proc_sem); }
1/11/2019

10. Mailboxes using semaphores
void pend(int *mailbox, int *message) {
wait(mutex);
if (full_slots) {
extract(mailbox, message);
update();
signal(mutex); }
else { ..
signal(mutex);
wait(proc_sem);
extract(mailbox,message); }
1/11/2019

11. Priority Inversion
When we allow concurrent task to execute and with semaphore and mailboxes and other synchronization primitives, it is possible that a low priority taks may come to block a high priority task. This situation is known as priority inversion.
See fig.3.16
1/11/2019