UNIT 7.

STUDY OF COMMERCIAL RTOS

OVERVIEW

 Real time operating system

 Overview of Linux

 Linux Kernel

 Architecure of RTLinux

 RTLinux Modules

 Semaphor & Mutex Management

 Other RTOS
 REAL-TIME OPERATING SYSTEM

 A Real-time operating system is a multitasking

operating system intended for applications with fixed
deadlines.

 Applications include-
 some small embedded systems,
 automobiles engine controllers,
 industrial robots,
 spacecraft,
 industrial control
 and some large-scale computing devices.
 LINUX
 In April 1991, Linus Torvards, a 21-year-old student
at the University of Helsinki, Finland started working
on some simple ideas for an operating system.

 Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system

assembled under the model of free and open source
software development and distribution.

 Linux was originally developed as a free operating

system for Intel x86-based personnel computers.

 Linux since has been ported to more computed

hardware platforms than any other operating systems.

 Linux also run on embedded systems. Such as

 mobile phones, network routers, televisions.
 KERNEL:
 Kernel manages the tasks to achieve the desired
performance of the system .
 To manage the tasks, the important requirements are
to schedule the tasks and to provide inter-task
communication facilities
 to achieve these two requirements, kernel objects are
defined such as
 Tasks
 Mutexes
 ISR’s
 Events
 Message boxes
 Mailboxes
 Pipes and timers
 Kernel provide the memory management service,
time management services, interrupt handling
services and device management services.
LINUX KERNEL
ARCHITECTURE OF RTLINUX

 RTLinux is a hard RTOS microkernel that runs the

entire Linux operating system as a fully preemptive
process.
 It was developed by Victor Yodaiken, Michael
Barabanov and others at the New Mexico Institute of
Mining and Technology and then as a commercial
product at FSMLabs.

 FSMLabs has two editions of RTLinux.

 RTLinux pro and RTLinux free.
 RTLinux pro is the priced edition and RTLinux is the
open source release.

 RTLinux support hard real time applications,

 Linux kernel has been modified by adding a layer of
software between the hardware and the Linux kernel.

 The new layer, RTLinux layer has a separate task

scheduler. This task scheduler assigns lowest
priority to the standard Linux kernel.

 Any task that has to met real-time constraints will run

under RTLinux.
 Interrupts from Linux are disabled to achieve real-
time performance.
ARCHITECTURE OF RTLINUX KERNEL
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE LINUX AND RTLINUX:

 Linux  RTLinux
 Linux is not a hard real  RTLinux supports hard
time system. real-time applications.
 The tasks, which do not  Any task that has real-
have any time time constraints will run
constraints. under RTLinux.
 In RTLinux location of the various files are:
 RTLinux will be installed in the directory
/usr/rtlinux-xxx, where xxx is the version name.

 /usr/rtlinux/include contains all the include files

necessary for development project.

 /usr/doc/rtlinux/man contains the manual pages for

the RTLinux.

 /usr/rtlinux/modules contains the core RTLinux

modules
RTLINUX MODULES
 RTLinux programs are not created as stand-alone units,
they are created as modules, which are loaded into the
Linux kernel space.
 The C source files are compiled into objects files using the
gcc command with the argument –c flag.
 In the C file, the main() function gets replaced with the
following lines:
 Int init_module();
 Void cleanup_module();

 Init_module is called when the module is first loaded into

the kernel.
 This function returns 0 if the module is successfully loaded.
 It returns a negative value in case of failure.
 cleanup_module() is called When the module is loaded is
to be unloaded.
EXECUTING THE RTLINUX MODULES

 In RTLinux load and stop user modules using the

RTLinux commands.

 Using command, we can also obtain status information

about RTLinux modules.

 The command syntax is:

 $rtlinux start my_program

 $rtlinux stop my_program

 $rtlinux status my_program

CREATING RTLINUX POSIX THREADS

 A real-time program generally consists of a number of

threads.

 Each thread share a common address space .

 Pthread_create() function is used to create a new real-

time thread.

 The corresponding header file is

#include <pthread.h>
SEMAPHOR AND MUTEX MANAGEMENT IN RTLINUX

 To achieve real-time performance, various POSIX

compliant API function calls are used.

 These function calls are related to create and cancel

semaphores.

 To implement mutex, we have to include the header file

<rtl_mutex.h> in the C program.

 To cancel a thread, the system call is pthread_cancel.

OTHER REAL TIME OPERATING SYSTEMS

 RTLinux – Monolithic kernel with loadable modules

 QNX – Microkernel approach

 VxWorks – Monolithic kernel

 LynxOS – Microkernel

 ARTS, Spring, KURT, RTAI, etc….