Tutorial Hard Real Time Systems

Tutorial Hard Real-time Systems

The Testability of Distributed Real-Time Systems

BY H. KOPETZ A real-time computer system must provide the intended service in two di mensions: the functional (value) dimension and the temporal dimension. The verification of a real-time system implementation is thus necessarily more com plex than the verification of a non-real-time system which has to be checked in the value dimension only. Since the formal verification techniques of temporal properties have not yet matured to the point where these techniques can be used in practical system development, systematic design and testing are the only alternatives for the development of dependable real-time systems. At present, up to and more than fifty percent of the development eff'ort of complex real-time computer systems is spent on testing. The test activities are thus a significant cost element in any real-time system project. The attack on this cost element has to proceed from two fronts: the design for testability and the development of a systematic test methodology supported by an appropriate tool set. This book covers both of these topics.

Rugged Embedded Systems

Rugged Embedded Systems: Computing in Harsh Environments describes how to design reliable embedded systems for harsh environments, including architectural approaches, cross-stack hardware/software techniques, and emerging challenges and opportunities. A "harsh environment" presents inherent characteristics, such as extreme temperature and radiation levels, very low power and energy budgets, strict fault tolerance and security constraints, etc. that challenge the computer system in its design and operation. To guarantee proper execution (correct, safe, and low-power) in such scenarios, this contributed work discusses multiple layers that involve firmware, operating systems, and applications, as well as power management units and communication interfaces. This book also incorporates use cases in the domains of unmanned vehicles (advanced cars and micro aerial robots) and space exploration as examples of computing designs for harsh environments. - Provides a deep understanding of embedded systems for harsh environments by experts involved in state-of-the-art autonomous vehicle-related projects - Covers the most important challenges (fault tolerance, power efficiency, and cost effectiveness) faced when developing rugged embedded systems - Includes case studies exploring embedded computing for autonomous vehicle systems (advanced cars and micro aerial robots) and space exploration