Masters Degrees (Mathematical Sciences)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Mathematical Sciences) by Author "Ackerman, M. C . (Marthinus Casper)"

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    Kernel support for embedded reactive systems
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1993-10) Ackerman, M. C . (Marthinus Casper); De Villiers, P. J. A.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Science. Dept. of Mathematical Sciences.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Reactive systems are event driven state machines which usually do not terminate, but remain in perpetual interaction with their environment. Such systems usually interact 'With devices which introduce a high degree of concurrency and some real time constraints to the system. Because of the concurrent nature of reactive systems they are commonly implemented as communicating concurrent processes on one or more processors. Jeffay introduces a design paradigm which requires consumer processes to consume messages faster than they are produced by producer processes. If this is guaranteed, the real time constraints of such .. system are always met, and the correctness of the process interaction is guaranteed in terms of the message passing semantics. I developed the ESE kernel, which supports Jeffay systems by providing lightweight processes which communicate over asynchronous channels. Processes are scheduled non-preemptively according to the earliest deadline first policy when they have messages pending on their input channels. The Jeffay design method and the ESE kernel have been found to be highly suitable to implement embedded reactive systems. The general requirements of embedded reactive systems, and kernel support required by such systems, are discussed.