Real-time kernel in hardware RTU: a step towards deterministic and high-performance real-time systems

Demands on real-time kernels increase every year: as applications grow larger and become more complex, real-time kernels must give short and predictable response. The RTU is a real-time kernel coprocessor implemented in an ASIC, which is intended to meet the growing expectations on real-time kernels. Since the RTU gives fast response times, it is necessary to define a detailed time-model to improve the understanding of the real-time kernel behaviour in the μS-domain. In this paper, we describe how to use the RTU in a single-or multi-processor architecture and a time-model for a RTU based real-time system is defined. The time-model is considered with regards to determinism and performance