Real Time Systems Laboratory Development: Experiments Focusing On A Dual Core Processor

Abstract

This paper presents the laboratory curriculum developed for a senior-level elective course in Real Time Systems. The labs developed for this semester long course are aimed at providing a challenging experience to electrical and computer engineering students and exposing them to state-of-the-art tools from industry. The projects were developed on the OMAP 5912 starter kit module supplied by Texas Instruments (TI). The open multimedia architecture platform (OMAP) technology from TI consists mainly of dual-core processor chips. The OMAP 5912 chip has an ARM processor and a C55 digital signal processor (DSP) in the same package. The Linux kernel runs on the ARM processor and the DSP-BIOS kernel runs on the TI C55 DSP in tandem. The real time software development tools for this system are the Code Composer Studio integrated development environment (IDE) and the Monta Vista Linux environment. The platform is thus ideally suited to expose students to real time systems. The projects developed cover the following topics sequentially: introduction to the environment, real time operating systems, software development and application debugging. Some of the applications covered are: implementing a finite impulse response (FIR) filter and testing with audio, modifying the filter for different band pass characteristics, testing an audio codec and implementing an embedded web server. TI expects to disseminate the instructional resources developed and tested in this course to other universities and industry partners.

Dual-core processors have recently entered mainstream computing in PC systems, and it is critical for students of computer engineering to be exposed to them early in their career. This paper extends past work 1, which presented the development of some introductory labs using TI's P P

OMAP 5912 Starter Kit (OSK). The Real Time Systems senior elective course at the University of Texas at Tyler combines lectures along with an integrated lab. The students are required to have at least one course in structured programming, and a course or prior experience with the operation of microprocessors, but Linux experience is not required. The lecture portion of the course introduces students to real-time system concepts including, hard and soft deadlines, scheduling algorithms, inter-task communication and synchronization. The lab portion of the course reinforces these theoretical concepts and provides hands-on familiarity with software, hardware, and development tools essential for real time systems development professionals. For example, hard deadlines have to be met in order to complete dual-core data processing.

The initial version of the lab procedures utilized a digital signal processor (DSP) based system. Texas Instruments' (TI) introduction of a cost effective dual core processor (OMAP 5912) development system has enabled a new lab curricula. The OMAP 5912 gives us the flexibility of development for a general-purpose processor based (GPP) system combined with the processing efficiency of a DSP based system. The sheer number of new concepts introduced to students in this course reflects the reality they have to face in the new job market. In order to fit in as professionals the students have to be conversant with real-time, computer architecture, DSP,