Real-Time Linux on Embedded Multicore Processors - Andreas Ehmanns, Technical Advisor
Channel: The Linux Foundation
Date: 2017-02-28

Real-Time Linux on Embedded Multicore Processors - Andreas Ehmanns, Technical Advisor

A standard Linux kernel can be modified by the well known PREEMPT-RT patch for adding real-time capabilities. This combination is well established in many embedded systems with real-time requirements. On the hardware side semiconductor industry was driving an evolution towards multicore processors even in the embedded area. Software developers are more and more facing the challenge to develop their software for multicore hardware or to migrate existing software to multicore systems.

In this presentation Andreas Ehmanns will start with a vanilla kernel and guide the audience step by step to a real-time multicore system. Based on tests running on a 8-core and a 24-core hardware system he will discuss each single step, it's effect on real-time behaviour and explain why profound processor architecure knowledge is mandatory.

About Andreas Ehmanns
Andreas Ehmanns has been a Linux user since 1995 and a kernel hacker since 1997 when he started writing drivers for several COTS and custom made data acquisition hardware. As a software developer with long hardware experience he started a project in 1996 to migrate an existing real-time data acquisition system running on 68K VME Boards from OS-9 to Linux. In the last 20 years he repeated this migration with several other operating systems like VxWorks or LynxOS. During this time he collected a lot of experience with real-time systems in a wide range from small SoCs like a Xilinx Zynq to clusters of 50 and more PowerPCs where he worked on kernel adaptation, BSP/driver and user space API development.
Actually he is working as a Technical Advisor for Embedded Software Systems at MBDA Germany GmbH and investigating suitability of multicore processors for embedded real-time systems.