Real-Time Systems and

Programming Languages

Alan Burns and Andy Wellings

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings
Other books

Ada 2005 RTSJ Version 1.0.1

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 2 of 24
 Prerequisites
 Basic understanding of Ada and C
 Basic understanding of Computer
Architectures.
 Basic understanding of Operating Systems

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 3 of 24
 Book Aims
 Understanding of the broad concept of real-
time systems
 Practical understanding for industry
 To stimulate research interest

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 4 of 24
 Overall Technical Aims
 To understand the basic requirements of real-time
systems and how these requirements have
influenced the design of real-time programming
languages and real-time operating systems
 To understand the implementation and analysis
techniques which enable these requirements to be
realized

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 5 of 24
 What is a real-time system?
 A real-time system is any information processing system
which has to respond to externally generated input stimuli
within a finite and specified period
 the correctness depends not only on the logical result but
also the time it was delivered
 failure to respond is as bad as the wrong response!
 The computer is a component in a larger engineering
system => EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEM
 99% of all processors are for the embedded systems market

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 6 of 24
 Terminology
 Hard real-time — systems where it is absolutely
imperative that responses occur within the required
deadline, e.g. A flight control system

 Soft real-time — systems where deadlines are important

but which will still function correctly if deadlines are
occasionally missed. E.g. Data acquisition system

 Firm real-time — systems which are soft real-time but in

which there is no benefit from late delivery of service
A single system may have hard, soft and firm real-time
subsystems. In reality many systems will have a cost function
associated with missing each deadline

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 7 of 24
 Terminology
 Time-aware — system makes explicit reference to time
(eg. open vault door at 9.00

 Reactive — system must produce output within deadline

(as measured from input)
 Control systems are reactive systems
 Required to constraint input and output (time)
variability, input jitter and output jitter control

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 8 of 24
 Terminology
 Time-triggered — computation is triggered by the passage of
time
 Release activity at 9.00

 Release activity every 25ms – a periodic activity

 Event-trigger — computation is triggered by an external or

internal event
 The released activity is called sporadic if there is a bound on the arrival
interval of the event

 The released activity is called aperiodic if there is no such bound

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 9 of 24
 A simple fluid control system
Interface

Pipe

Input flow Flow meter

reading

Processing

Valve
Output valve
angle
Time
Computer

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 10 of 24
 A Grain-Roasting Plant

Bin

Furnace
Fuel Tank

grain
Pipe

fuel

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 11 of 24
 A Widget-Packing Station

Switch
Computer

Switch

Assembly line

Bell

Line controller Box

0 = stop
1 = run

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 12 of 24
 A Process Control System
Process
Control
Computer

Temperature Finished
Valve Stirrer
Chemicals Transducer Products
and
Materials

PLANT
Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 13 of 24
 A Production Control System

Production
Control
System

Finished
Products
Parts

Machine Tools Manipulators Conveyor Belt

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Command and Control System
Command
Post

Command and Control

Computer

Temperature, Pressure, Power and so on

Terminals Sensors/Actuators

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 A Typical Embedded System
Real-Time Algorithms for Engineering
Interface
Clock Digital Control System

Data Logging Remote

Monitoring System

Database
Data Retrieval Display
and Display Devices

Operator’s
Console Real-Time Computer
Operator
Interface
Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 16 of 24
 Other Real-Time Systems
 Multi-media systems
 Including mobile devices

 Cyber-physical systems
 Linking web-based information and the sensed physical

world

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 Characteristics of a RTS
 Guaranteed response times — we need to be able to predict
with confidence the worst case response times for systems;
efficiency is important but predictability is essential

 Concurrent control of separate system components —

devices operate in parallel in the real-world; better to model
this parallelism by concurrent entities in the program

 Facilities to interact with special purpose hardware — need

to be able to program devices in a reliable and abstract way

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 18 of 24
 Characteristics of a RTS
 Support for numerical computation – be able to support the
discrete/continuous computation necessary for control system
feed-back and feed-forward algorithms

 Large and complex — vary from a few hundred lines of

assembler or C to 20 million lines of Ada, also variety as well as
size is an issue

 Extreme reliability and safety — embedded systems typically

control the environment in which they operate; failure to control
can result in loss of life, damage to environment or economic
loss

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 19 of 24
 RT Programming Languages
 Assembly languages
 Sequential systems implementation languages — e.g.
RTL/2, Coral 66, Jovial, C.
 Both normally require operating system support.
 High-level concurrent languages. Impetus from the software
crisis. e.g. Ada, Chill, Modula-2, Mesa, Java.
 No operating system support!
 We will consider:
 Java/Real-Time Java
 C and Real-Time POSIX (not in detail)
 Ada 2005

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 Real-Time Languages and OSs

User Programs User Program

Operating Including Operating

Hardware Hardware

System
System Components

Typical OS Configuration Typical Embedded Configuration

Real-Time Systems and Programming Languages: © Alan Burns and Andy Wellings 21 of 24
 Summary

 This lecture has introduced a number of key

definitions and examples of real-time systems

 The basic aspects of a real-time are well

represented in the following diagrams

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 Aspects of Real-Time Systems
Real-Time

Temporal Characteristics
Structure Classification (see next page)
Requirements

Periodic/
Deadline/ Input/output Time- Event- Role of
Sporadic/ Criticality
Latency jitter Aperiodic triggered triggered time

hard time-aware

soft reactive

firm

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 Aspects of Real-Time Systems

Characteristics

Interaction
Real-Time Numerical Efficiency/ Reliability/ Large/
Concurrency with
facilities computation Predictability Safety Complex
hardware

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