Summary of avr-os: Multitasking on Arduino
The article discusses "avr-os," a small multitasking library designed for AVR platforms like Arduino. It enables pre-emptive multitasking by allowing multiple tasks to run concurrently, each with its own stack, managed via timer interrupts. The example sketch demonstrates running two tasks that print to an LCD, illustrating how to start tasks, use os_sleep for task management, and implement spinlocks for synchronization.
Parts used in the avr-os Arduino Multitasking Project:
- Arduino Board (AVR Platform)
- AVR Timer (internal to the Arduino)
- LCD Display
Arduino is an open source prototyping platform for electronics. There is so much you can do with Arduino and the community is proof. In playing with Arduino I decided that it would be a great project to create a small multitasking library for use on AVR platforms, which includes Arduino.
A small introduction
avr-os is a library that provides a very basic rutime that enables your program to multitask.
The library uses pre-emptive multitasking to switch tasks and each task has its own stack that is restored when a task is resumed. An AVR timer is used to provide ticks and this interrupt is used to switch tasks.
Hello World, avr-os style
The following sketch is a basic example of how multitasking can be used in your Arduino sketches. This sketch has two tasks that continously print the task name and some information to the LCD.
It demonstrates how a task is started, how os_sleep can be used to sleep tasks, and the ability to use spinlocks.
For more detail: avr-os: Multitasking on Arduino
