Minos—the design and implementation of an embedded real-time operating system with a perspective of fault tolerance

This paper describes the design and implementation of a small real time operating system (OS) called Minos and its application in an onboard active safety project for general aviation. The focus of the operating system is predictability, stability, safety and simplicity. We introduce fault tolerance aspects in software by the concept of a very fast reboot procedure and by an error correcting flight data memory (FDM). In addition, fault tolerance is supported by custom designed hardware.