Information Search Analysis Skill (ISAS)

6/2/2011

INDEX

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By: Mukul Garg
 Information Search Analysis Skill (ISAS)
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1. Introduction………………………………….3
2. Types of RTOS……………………………...4
3. Scheduling in RTOS…………………………5
4. Memory Management in RTOS…………......6
5. Applications of RTOS……………………….7
6. Example of RTOSes………………………..8
7. Summary ……………………………………9
8. Bibliography……………………………….10

INTRODUCTION

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First of all we need to know what an operating system is. In nutshell, an
operating system is system software that is used to control the system. There are
various flavors of operating system, such as, batch operating system,
multiprogramming operating system, time-sharing operating system, real-time
operating system, parallel system, and many more. One of them, here we will
discuss some points about real-time operating system or RTOS.
A real-time system is used when rigid time requirement have been placed on
the operation of a processor or the flow of data; thus, it is often used as a control
device in a dedicated application. Sensors bring the data to the computer. The
computer must analyze the data and possibly adjust controls to modify the
sensor inputs. Systems that control scientific experiments, medical imaging
systems, industrial control systems, and certain display system are real time
system. Some automobile-engine fuel-injection systems, home appliance
controllers, and weapon system are also real-time systems.
A real-time system has well-defined, fixed time constraints. Processing must be
done within the defined constraints, or the system will fail. For instant, it would be
a robot arm to be instructed to halt after it had smashed into the car it was
building. It functions correctly only if it returns the correct result within its time
constraints.
Modern computer system also support real-time functionality like, support of
multimedia, interactive graphics, task scheduler, and many other functionalities
are applicable only in the environment that support soft real-time functionality.
Not only PCs and PCs’ operating systems like Windows XP, but many other
systems also support real-time functionality such as: antiaircraft systems,
manufacturing companies where various work is done with the help of robots,
many automobiles companies and other daily life things like many modern
engine of automobiles, microwave ovens etc.

TYPES OF RTOS
Real-time systems come in two flavors: hard and soft.

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1. Hard Real-Time System: A hard real-time system guarantees that critical
task be completed on time. This goal requires that all delays in the system
be bounded, from the retrieval of stored data to the time that it takes the
operating system to finish any request made of it. Such time constraints
dictate the facilities that are available in hard real-time systems.
Secondary storage of any sort is usually limited or missing, with data
instead being stored in short-term memory or in read-only memory (ROM).
Most advanced operating system features are absent too, since they tend
to separate the user from the hardware, and that separation results in
uncertainty about the amount of time an operation will take. For instant,
virtual memory is almost never found on real-time systems. None of the
existing general-purpose operating system support hard real-time
functionality.
2. Soft Real-Time System: A less restrictive type of RTOS is a soft real-
time system, where a critical real-time task gets priority over other tasks,
and retains that priority until it completes. As in hard real-time systems,
the operating system kernel delays need to be bounded: A real-time task
cannot be kept waiting indefinitely for the kernel to run it. Soft real time is
an achievable goal that can be mixed with other types of systems.
However soft real time system have more limited utility than hard real
time. Given their lack of deadline support, they are risky to use for
industrial control and robotics. They are useful, however in several areas,
including multimedia, virtual reality, and advance scientific projects –such
as undersea exploration and planetary rovers. These systems need
advanced operating system features that can not be supported by hard
real-time systems. Because of the expanded uses of soft real-time
functionality, it is finding its way into most current operating systems,
including major versions of UNIX.

SCHEDULING IN RTOS
Real-time computing divides into two types. Hard real-time systems are required
to complete a critical task within a guaranteed amount of time. Generally, a
process is submitted along with a statement of the amount of time in which it
needs to complete or perform I/O. The scheduler then either admits the process,
guaranteeing that the process will complete on time, or reject the request as

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impossible. This is known as resource reservation. Such a guarantee requires
that the scheduler know exactly how long each type of operating system function
takes to perform, and therefore each operation must guaranteed to take a
maximum amount of time. Therefore, hard real-time systems are composed of
special-purpose software running on hardware dedicated to their critical process,
and lack the full functionality of modern computers and operating systems.
Soft real-time computing is less restrictive. It requires that critical processes
receive priority over less fortunate ones. The result is that the functionalities like,
support of multimedia, high-speed interactive graphics, and variety of tasks like
that are available only in the environments that support soft real-time
functionality. Implementing soft real-time functionality requires careful design of
the scheduler and relative aspect of the operating system. The system must have
priority scheduling, and real-time processes must have the highest priority.
Various scheduling algorithms:

 Rate Monotonic (RM)

 Earliest Dead-Line First (EDF)
 Minimum Laxity First (MLF)
 Maximum Urgency First (MUF)

MEMORY MANAGEMENT IN RTOS

A hard real-time system guarantees that a critical task will be completed in given
time constraint or the system will fail. In hard real-time system there is more
complex and hard time constraint. Such time constraints dictate the facilities that
are available in hard real-time system. Secondary storage of any sort is usually
limited or missing, with data instead being stored in short-term memory or in
read-only memory (ROM). Virtual memory is almost never found in real-time
system.
On the other hand, soft real-time system is less restrictive. In soft real-time
system a real-time task get priority over other tasks. Soft real-time system can be
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mixed with other type of systems. Many modern operating systems now support
soft real-time functionality. There are two types of memory management.
The first type is used to provide tasks with temporary data space. The system’s
free memory is divided into fixed sized memory blocks, which can be requested
by tasks. When a task finishes using a memory block it must return it to the pool.
A pool of memory is dedicated to high priority tasks and another to low priority
tasks. The high-priority pool is sized to have the worst-case memory demand of
the system. The low priority pool is given the remaining free memory. If the low
priority tasks exhaust the low priority memory pool, they must wait for memory to
be returned to the pool before further execution
The second type of memory management is used to dynamically swap code in
and out of main memory. Specific techniques are memory swapping, overlays,
multiprogramming with a fixed number of tasks (MFT), multiprogramming with a
variable number of tasks (MVT) and demand paging.

Note: In case of swapping a process is divided into various numbers of pages.

And pages are loaded into main memory one-by-one. So that large size
processes can be executed on the system. When using overlays, the code is
partitioned into smaller pieces, which are swapped from disk to memory. In MFT,
a fixed number of equalized code parts are in memory at the same time. As
needed, these parts are overlaid from disk. MVT is similar to MFT except that the
size of the partition depends on the needs of the program in MVT. In the of
demand paging processes are broke down in the number of pages and loaded
into memory as and when required.

APPLICATIONS OF RTOS
Unlike the fundamental definition of RTOS, typical applications of real-time
systems have changed over the years. In 1980s real-time systems were used
almost exclusively for control applications. Over the time the use of real-time
systems grew. Control applications remain popular, however. A source from
1990s explains that in many real-time systems:
“Sensor brings data to the computer. The computer must analyze the data and
possibly adjust control to modify the sensor inputs. System that control scientific
experiments, medical imaging systems, industrial control systems and some

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display systems are real-time systems. Also included are some automobile-
engine fuel-injection systems, home-appliance controllers and weapon systems”
-- (Operating System Concept –Silberschatz, Galvin)
Today there are various applications that require their output in fixed time, such
as weapons, embedded industry, and so many. Consider the following
applications of RTOS,

 RTOS for complex, hard real-time applications that require fast and
deterministic response, LynxOS. LynxOS is scalable RTOS from large and
complex switching system down to small embedded products.
 General purpose RTOS in embedded industry, VxWork. VxWork is
a component of Tornado II.
 Windows CE 3.0, a highly modular embedded RTOS for small
footprint, mobile 32-bit intelligent connected devices. Windows CE can
work on 12 different processor architectures. It can be customized to meet
specific product requirement with a minimum footprint of 400MB.
 RTOS for Java platform. The Jbed RTOS package is a real-time
capable virtual machine developed for embedded systems and Internet
applications under the Java platform. It allows an entire application
including the device drivers to be written using Java. Instead of
interpreting the bytecode, the Jbed RTOS translates the bytecode to fast
machine code prior to downloading or class loading. Jbed runs on 32-bit
microprocessors and controllers. Jbed Light is smaller, low-cost version
for fast and precompiled standalone applications. It contains the basic
components including the core Jbed virtual machine, a small set of
standard Java libraries, and the Jbed libraries required to directly access
peripherals.
 Real-time features are also supported by modern operating
systems, like Windows NT, Windows XP, and Native UNIX etc.

EXAMPLES OF RTOS
 BeOS
 ChorusOS
 eCos
 FreeRTOS
 ITRON
 LynxOS

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 MicroC/OS-II
 OS-9
 OSE
 OSE/VDX
 pSOS
 QNX
 RSX-11
 RT-11
 RTOS-UH
 VRTX
 VxWorks
 Windows CE
 RTLinux
 RTAI

SUMMARY
Operating systems are use to control the system because they can do that in
much better way than human beings. Real-time operating system in on of the
operating system that is use when there is rigid time requirements on the
operation of processor or flow of data, so often used as a controller. They have a
fixed and well defined time constraint and the work must be done within that time
constraint or the system will fail. Various areas where RTOS are used are
weapon system; multimedia, embedded industries and many modern general
purpose operating systems also support real-time facilities.
Real-time system comes into two flavors: hard real-time system and soft real-
time system. Hard real-time system guarantees that critical task get completed

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within the defined time constraint. This requires that all the delays must be
bounded from the retrieval of the job to its completion. Soft real-time systems are
less restrictive that the critical real-time task get the priority over others and retain
that priority until it completes. Generally they are not used as industrial controller
and robots. They are used in several areas like multimedia and even also
supported by various modern operating systems. And required more restricted
advance operating system features then hard real-time system.
Generally preemptive priority based scheduling is used in RTOS to schedule
various tasks. In the case of hard real-time system is submitted to the system
with a statement amount of time in which it will complete. The scheduler either
submit the process with the guarantee that the process will complete within the
defined time constraint or it will reject from the submission as impossible. On the
other hand, soft real-time systems use priority based scheduling scheme. In soft
real-time system a critical real time task get highest priority over other tasks.
In hard real-time system secondary storage either limited or missing. Data are
stored in short term memory on in ROM. Since advance operation system
features are missing, so virtual memory is almost never found. Whereas soft real-
time systems require advance operating system features. There are two type of
management. In first type memory is divided into fixed size of memory blocks.
The scheduler fetches the new job in the free block. In second type dynamic
swapping of code in and out scheme is used. To fulfill that scheme various
schemes –swapping, demand paging, MFT, MVT are used.
The applications of RTOS are very wide. Many applications require real-time
functionality, like weapon systems, embedded industries, robots and many more.
Even modern operating systems also support real-time functionality like, support
of multimedia, scheduling of task. RTOS functionality is also supported by Java.
Jbed package is used to provide real-time virtual machine of embedded systems
and on internet under Java platform.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Operating System Concepts –Silberschatz, Galvin, Gagne

 www.netrino.com

 http://people.msoe.edu/~sebern/courses/cs384/papers98/verber.pd
f

 A Survey of Real-time Operating Systems [ Internet ]

Address:http://www.ece.stevens-
tech.edu/~ymeng/courses/embedded_systems/papers/rtos_paper.pdf
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