Predicting timing behavior in architectural design exploration of real-time embedded systems

ABSTRACT

The degree of flexibility of a real-time system architectureindicates the capability of the system to tolerate perturbationsin timing related specifications. Flexibility is also an importantfactor in the trade-off studies between cost and performance.In this paper, we identify the need for a flexibility metricand show that the existing real-time analysis results cannot bedirectly used as such a metric. We formulate new metrics andillustrate their effectiveness in comparing the flexibility of differentsystem architectures.

REFERENCES

• 1: K. Buchenrieder and C. Veith, "CODES: a practical concurrent design environment", Handouts from International Workshop on Hardware-Software Codesign, October 1992.
• 2: S. K. Dhall, and C. L. Liu, "On a real-time scheduling problem", Operations Research, Vol. 26, No. 1, January, 1978, pp. 127-140.
• 3: M. R. Garey, and D. S. Johnson, "Complexity results for multiprocessor scheduling under resource constraints", Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Journal of Computing, 4, 1975.
• 4: X. Hu and J.G. D'Ambrosio, "Configuration-level hardware/software partitioning for real-time embedded systems", to appear in Journal of Design Automation for Embedded Systems.
• 5: Xiaobo Hu , Joseph G. D'Ambrosio , Brian T. Murray , Dah-Lain Tang, Codesign of Architectures for Automotive Powertrain Modules, IEEE Micro, v.14 n.4, p.17-25, August 1994 [doi>10.1109/40.296154]
• 6: Sanjaya Kumar , James H. Aylor , Barry W. Johnson , Wm. A. Wulf, Object-Oriented Techniques in Hardware Design, Computer, v.27 n.6, p.64-70, June 1994 [doi>10.1109/2.294857]
• 7: E. L. Lawler, and C. U. Martel, "Scheduling periodically occurring tasks on multiple processors", Information Processing Letters, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1981, pp. 9-12.
• 8: J. P. Lehoczky and S. Ramos-Thuel, "An optimal algorithm for scheduling soft-aperiodic tasks in fixed-priority preemptive systems", Proceedings of Real-Time Systems Symposium, December 1992, pp. 110-123.
• 9: J. Lehoczky, L. Sha, and Y. Ding, "The rate monotonic scheduling algorithm: exact characterization and average case behavior", Proceedings of the 1989 IEEE Real-time System Symposium, December 1989, pp. 166-171.
• 10: J. Y-T Leung and J. Whitehead, "On the complexity of fixed-priority scheduling of periodic, real-time tasks", Performance Evaluation, vol.2, 1982, pp.237-250.
• 11: C. L. Liu , James W. Layland, Scheduling Algorithms for Multiprogramming in a Hard-Real-Time Environment, Journal of the ACM (JACM), v.20 n.1, p.46-61, Jan. 1973 [doi>10.1145/321738.321743]
• 12: Ti-Yen Yen , Wayne Wolf, Performance estimation for real-time distributed embedded systems, Proceedings of the 1995 International Conference on Computer Design: VLSI in Computers and Processors, p.64-71, October 02-04, 1995

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.3 SPECIAL-PURPOSE AND APPLICATION-BASED SYSTEMS
      Subjects: Real-time and embedded systems

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Measurement, Performance, Theory