From: megauthi@guest0.uwaterloo.ca (Marc E. Gauthier)
Subject: Re: Real-Time Operating System List
Keywords: Harmony realtime multiprocessor OS RTOS portable configurable
Organization: SEL, IIT, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa
Distribution: comp
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 15:10:56 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.171650.23051@cs.cmu.edu> dstewart+@cs.cmu.edu (David B Stewart) writes:
>Below is a list of both commercial and research Real-Time Operating
>Systems (RTOS) which are being used around the world for implementing
>sensor-based systems. [...]
[...]
>Research RTOS:
>    (Note:  only research RTOS that have been packaged and are available 
>	    for use outside the research institution are included)
[...]
>    Harmony Operating System
>	    Runs on MC680X0-based single board computers
>	Canada:
>	    Division of Electrical Engineering
>	    National Research Council of Canada
>	    Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
>	    K1A 0R6
>	    ref: NRCC Tech Report No. 30081

This information is a bit outdated.  The Harmony multiprocessor message-
passing realtime OS is now available commercially under the name Precise/MPX
from:

		Precise Software Technologies Inc.
		301 Moodie drive
		Suite 308
		Nepean, Ontario, Canada
		K2H 9C4
		tel: (613) 596-2251
		fax: (613) 596-6713
		email: jeremy@psti.com

They have a ready product that runs on 80x86, 680x0, or 68302 cpus, as
well as kernel emulation capability on a PC host (under DOS).
We have also just completed a port to the 68040 supporting full data&code
caching.  All code is written to be highly portable, and is supported on
a variety of compilers.  Development hosts vary widely, eg. Unix systems,
Macs, PCs, VMS.  Precise will provide custom work for adapting the software
to different cpus, targets or environments.  Note that Harmony / Precise/MPX
was specifically designed to be a multiprocessor OS.


Here is the updated entry for the Harmony research RTOS (Precise/MPX is the
name of the commercial product; Harmony is the original name, used in our
research setting).  The Division of Electrical Engineering no longer exists
per se; the address of our research lab is now:
		Software Engineering Laboratory
		Institute for Information Technology (IIT)
		Building M-50
		National Research Council Canada
		Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
		K1A 0R6
		tel: (613) 993-2629
		fax: (613) 952-7151
		email: gentleman@iit.nrc.ca  (Dr. Morven Gentleman)

There are various reports and articles related to Harmony.  Following
is a more complete, but partial, bibliography (a complete one is available
upon request).  It is much longer than I would expect you to include in
your list, but at least it should be better than the mention of a single
report.  (I hope this is not an inappropriately big posting.)  Perhaps you
could mention that a bibliography is available from gentleman@iit.nrc.ca.

As an example of applications, Harmony is being used for sensor-based
robotics here at NRC, and for graphics-related experiments at
University of Waterloo's Computer Graphics Laboratory.  There's more
in the bibliography.


--------------------------------------------------------------- >8
6 April 1992

Bibliography of Harmony-related papers

General

[2]	W.M. Gentleman, "Multiprocessor Realtime Applications,"
	Proceedings of IEE International Specialist Seminar "The Design
	and Application of Parallel Digital Processors," Lisbon,
	Portugal, 11-15 April 1988. pp. 15-20.
[3]	W.M. Gentleman, "Message Passing Between Sequential Processes:
	The Reply Primitive and the Administrator Concept,"  Software
	Practice and Experience, Vol. 11, No. 5, May 1981, pp. 435-466.
[5]	W.M. Gentleman and D.A. Stewart, "Debugging Multi-task Programs,"
	Proceedings of the Conference of the Army Research Workshop on
	Parallel Processing and Medium Scale Multiprocessors, January
	6-8, 1986,  Stanford, CA.
[11]	W.M. Gentleman, Terry Shepard and D.V.P Thoresen, "Administrators
	and Multiprocessor Rendezvous Mechanisms," Software-Practice and
	Experience, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 1-39, January 1992.

Harmony Internals, Tools and Porting

[3]	Marc Gauthier, "Communication Firmware and Distributed File
	System Support for the Harmony Realtime OS (TCP/IP and NFS),"
	Report, Department of Computer Science, University of Waterloo,
	CS-91-69, September 1991.
[4]	W.M. Gentleman, S.A. MacKay, D.A. Stewart, and M. Wein, "Using
	the Harmony Operating System, Release 3.0," NRC/ERA-377, National
	Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., February 1989.
[7]	W.M. Gentleman, S.A. MacKay, D.A. Stewart and M. Wein, "An
	Introduction to the Harmony Realtime Operating System,"
	Newsletter of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on
	Operating Systems, Summer 1988.
[8]	W.M. Gentleman, "Realtime Applications: Multiprocessors in
	Harmony," Proceedings  of BUSCON/88 East, New York, October 3-6
	1988, pp. 269-278. Also published as NRC/ERB-1011, August 1989.
	NRC 30692.
[10]	W.M. Gentleman, S.A. MacKay, D.A. Stewart and M. Wein,
	"Commercial realtime software needs different configuration
	management." Proceedings of 2nd International Workshop on
	Software Configuration Management (SCM), Princeton, NJ. October
	24-27, 1989. Published in Software Eng. Notes, 17(7): 152-161;
	1989. NRC 30695. Also published as NRC/ERB-1025, November 1989.
	NRC 30939.
[14]	M. Imperatore, "Designing and Implementing Configurable Systems for
	Prototyping and Controlling Multitask Realtime Applications," M.Math.
	Thesis, University of Waterloo, 1991.
[17]	J.V. Kelley, K.S. Booth, M. and M. Wein,  "Design Experience with
	a Multiprocessor Window System Architecture." Proceedings of
	Graphics Interface '89, London, Ont., June 19-23, 1989. pp. 62-69.
	NRC 30286.
[18]	S.A. MacKay, W.M. Gentleman, D.A. Stewart and M. Wein, "Harmony
	as an Object-Oriented Operating System," in Proceedings of the
	ACM SIGPLAN Workshop on Object-Oriented Concurrent Programming,
	San Diego, September 26-27, 1988. Special Issue of SIGPLAN
	Notices, Vol. 24, Number 4, pp. 201-203, April 1989.
[22]	D.A. Stewart and S.A. MacKay (eds.), "Harmony Application Notes
	(Release 3.0)," NRC/ERA-378, National Research Council of Canada,
	Ottawa, Ont., February 1989.
[23]	D.V.P. Thoreson, "Harmony Multi-Tasking Runtime Support for the
	Ada Rendezvous," MSc Thesis, Royal Military College of Canada,
	Kingston, Ont., May 1988.
[24]	D.V.P. Thoreson, "A Harmony Administrator Implementation for Ada
	Rendezvous," Technical Report, Dept of Electrical Engineering,
	Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ont., May 1988.


Applications with Significant Dependancy on Harmony

[1]	C.C. Archibald, W.M. Gentleman and D.H. O'Hara, "Realtime
	Feedback Control Using a Laser Range Finder and Harmony,"
	Proceedings of the 7th Canadian CAD/CAM and Robotics Conference,
	Toronto, Ont., June 14-16 1988.
[2]	B.M. Barry,  D.A. Thomas, J.R. Altoft and M. Wilson, "Using
	Objects to Design and Build Radar ESM Systems," Proceedings of
	the Conference on Object Oriented Programming Systems, Languages
	and Applications, Orlando, FL, October 4-8 1987, SIGPLAN Notices,
	Vol. 22, No. 12, December 1987, pp. 192-201.
[3]	K.S. Booth, W.B. Cowan, and D.R. Forsey, "Multitasking Support in
	a Graphics Workstation," Proceedings of the 1st International
	Conference on Computer Workstations, San Jose, CA, November
	11-14, 1985, pp. 82-89.
[4]	S. Elgazzar, D. Green, and D.H. O'Hara, "A Vision-Based Robot
	System Using a Multiprocessing Controller," NRC/ERB-971, National
	Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., June 1984.
[5]	S. Elgazzar, D. Green and W.M. Gentleman, "Open System
	Architecture of a Multiprocessor Robot Controller," Proceedings
	of the 7th Canadian CAD/CAM and Robotics Conference, Toronto,
	Ont., June 14-16 1988.
[6]	S. Elgazzar, R. Liscano,  and D. Green,  "Realtime control of
	autonomous robots using the Harmony Operating System."
	Proceedings of the Second Workshop on Military Robotic
	Applications, Kingston, Ont. August 8-11, 1989, pp. 355-360.
	NRC 30568.
[7]	S. Elgazzar, "A Multiprocessor Architecture for Realtime Robot
	Control," Proceedings of the Canadian Conference on Electrical
	and Computer Engineering, Ottawa, Ontario, September 4-6, 1990.
	pp. 50.4.1-58.4.5. NRC 31744.
[8]	S. Elgazzar and A. Castonguay, "Maestro: An Open System Architecture
	for Multi-Robot Control," Proceedings of the Third Workshop on
	Military Robotic Applications, Medicine Hat, Alta, September 9-12, 1991.
[9]	D. Green, R. Liscano,  and M. Wein,  "Real-time control of an
	autonomous mobile robot using the Harmony Operating System."
	Proceedings of the Fourth IEEE International Symposium on
	Intelligent Control, Albany, NY. September 24-26, 1989,
	pp. 374-378. NRC 30554.
[12]	D.H. O'Hara , "Multiprocessor Robot Control for Assembly: A
	Demonstration with Tactile Feedback for Prismatic Shaped Block
	Insertion," 7th International Conference on Robot Vision and
	Sensory Controls, Zurich, Switzerland 2-4 February 1988.
[14]	D.H. O'Hara and R. Kurtz, "Prismatic-shaped Block Insertion: an
	Application of a Multiprocessor Robot Controller using Harmony,"
	NRC/ERB-1006, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.,
	December 1987.
[15]	G. Roth and D. O'Hara, "A Holdsite Method for Parts Acquisition
	Using a Laser Rangefinder Mounted on a Robot Wrist," Proceedings
	of IEEE Conference on Robotics and Automation, Raleigh, NC,
	May 1987, pp. 1517-1523.
[16]	P.P. Tanner, M.Wein, W.M. Gentleman, S.A. MacKay, and D.A.
	Stewart,  "The User Interface of Adagio, a Robotics Multitasking
	Multiprocessor Workstation," Proceedings of the 1st International
	Conference on Computer Workstations, San Jose CA, November 11-14,
	1985, pp. 90-98.
[17]	P.P. Tanner, S.A. MacKay, D.A. Stewart and M. Wein, "A
	Multitasking Switchboard Approach to User Interface Management,"
	in Proceedings of SIGGRAPH '86, Computer Graphics, Vol. 20,
	No. 4, August 1986, pp. 241-248.
[18]	P.P. Tanner, B.M. Fowler, and K.S. Booth, "Experiences with
	Graphics Support for a Multiprocessor Workstation,"   accepted by
	Conference on Parallel Processing for Computer Vision and
	Display,  Leeds, U.K., January 12-15 1988.
--------------------------------------------------------------- >8

>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>David B. Stewart  - email: <dstewart@cmu.edu>            The Robotics Institute
>snail mail:       - ECE Dept., Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213
>Current Projects: - Chimera 3.0 Real-Time Operating System
>		  - Reconfigurable Sensor-Based Control Systems

-Marc
-- 
Marc E. Gauthier   +1 613 993 1384 (work,Ottawa)  +1 819 777 5841 (res,Hull)
Software Eng Lab, IIT, National Research Council Canada:  mgauthier@iit.nrc.ca
(You might also try my UW CGL account:  megauthier@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca)
Newsgroups: comp.realtime,comp.robotics