A Real Time Operating System
As a requirement for the course CSC 460, we implemented an RTOS to meet the specification provided to us by the course instructor, Mantis Cheng. It has a novel design to provide a framework for periodic functions on a micro-controller.
Real Time
Historically, the term "real-time" referred to a type of simulation of a real-world system on a computer. The term implied that the simulation ran at the same rate as the physical system. Now the term has come to refer to systems that respond to stimuli within strict deadlines; a late response is as bad as an incorrect response. Technically speaking, a late response is an incorrect response in real-time computing. Typical applications are in embedded systems, such as medical systems, industrial controllers, or automotive controllers, such as for controlling aspects of the engine or anti-lock brakes.
There are thousands of real-time operating systems available, many of them free or open-source. But the devices they run on are simple enough that many programmers write their own custom OS for the application at hand. Most of these systems use priority-based pre-emptive scheduling, to minimize the response time for the most important stimuli.
Our RTOS
Our RTOS is designed for a different purpose than most other RTOSes, mainly to support periodic tasks as its primary feature. The goal is to provide an easy way to interleave many periodic tasks, guaranteeing limits on jitter in the operation of each task at its specified frequency. That is, tasks that are specified to be periodic include frequency of of execution and a deadline for each cycle in the specification. The application designer must arrange the tasks to meet these goals in advance, before even compiling the system.
The application designer specifies a Gantt chart for the periodic tasks, which is a schedule of when and how long to run each of the tasks. Any unallocated time would be available to non-periodic tasks in the system. A tool that automates this process would be useful, but we don't include one.
Our RTOS also supports priority-based scheduling in a limited way. Background tasks, with the lowest priority are scheduled round-robin, interrupted at a specific time interval. High-priority system tasks pre-empt the background tasks and even the periodic tasks. They are scheduled "first come, first served" and run to completion.
Target Hardware
The RTOS is written in C, and intended to be used on an Atmel AT90USB Key. The Key is a demonstration board which incorporates the Atmel AT90USB1287, some serial dataflash, some LEDs, and a 4+1 ways joystick. The RTOS could be easily adapted to run on other Atmel 8-bit RISC micro-controllers.
Software used to develop the RTOS included the Atmel AVR Studio integrated development environment, which includes a simulator for the target processor, and Atmel Flip, which is an application that runs on a Microsoft Windows PC to load executable code to the Key via a USB connection.