Time-Predictable Embedded Software on Multi-Core Platforms

Multi-core architecture has recently gained popularity due to its high performance and low-power characteristics. Most of the modern desktop systems are now equipped with multi-core processors. Despite the wide-spread adaptation of multi-core processors in desktop systems, using such processors in embedded systems still poses several challenges. Embedded systems are often constrained by several non-functional aspects, such as time. Therefore, providing guarantees for time-predictable execution is one of the key requirement for embedded systems designers. Multi-core processors adversely affect the time-predictability due to the presence of shared resources, such as shared caches and shared buses. This book first discusses the challenges imposed by multi-core architectures in designing time-predictable embedded systems. It goes on to perform an in-depth survey of different techniques which have been developed by the authors and other research groups to guarantee time-predictable execution on multi-core platforms. The aim is to provide a solid background on recent trends of research towards achieving time-predictability on multi-cores. It also highlights the limitations of state-of-the-art and discusses the future research opportunities and challenges in time-predictability on multi-cores.