Final Year Project Electronic

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Final Year ProjectElectronic Computer
Engineering
Design and Realisation of Experiments for an
Embedded Linux Laboratory Class

• Student Andrew Sweeney
• Supervisor Dr. Peter Corcoran

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Current 4th Year Embedded Systems Course

• Reason for doing this project
• The goals of this project
• Become familiar with the basics of Linux and
  install Linux on a desktop PC
• Learn how to install and get RTAI working
• Run some basic programs to verify RTAI
  functionality
• Work through experiments and document for both
  supervisor and student

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Real-Time Systems

• What is a real-time system?
• Hard real-time systems
• Soft real-time systems
• No real time interface on the Linux operating
  system

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RTAI

• Real-Time Application Interface
• Using new release rtai-3.4
• RTAI comes with useful programs

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Verify RTAI functionality

• RTAI Testsuite
• Latency Test
• Switches Test
• Pre-empt Test

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Linux Distribution Chosen

• Linux
• Ubuntu Distribution
• Advantages
• Installing kernel on PC
• Creating a custom-made kernel

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Alterations for Custom Kernel

• What is the Hardware Abstraction Layer
• Patch it directly onto kernel source code
• Configure the kernel build differently
• Make slight alteration to the kernel Makefile

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Loadable Kernel Modules

• What are Loadable Kernel Modules
• Wrote in C programming language
• Makefile to build each experiment
• Insertion and removal of the modules

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The Pure Periodic Scheduling of a Single Task

• Pure Periodic Scheduling
• The output of the experiment
• How the task itself functions

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The Pure Periodic Scheduling of two Tasks

• Periodic scheduling of two tasks
• The output of the experiment
• How the task itself functions

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The Variable Periodic Scheduling of a Single Task

• One-Shot Mode
• How the task itself functions
• The output of the experiment

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Experiment Using Semaphores

• What are Semaphores
• Binary Semaphores
• Counting Semaphores
• What the task does
• Can load module with optional semaphores
• How does the task function operate

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Ubuntu Live CD

• What is a Live CD
• Purpose of a Live CD for this Project
• Progress with the creation of custom CD
• Problems
• Solutions

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Progress in the Project

• Installed Linux on computer
• Installed Real-Time Application Interface
• Got the first 3 out of first 4 experiments
  loading and one of the more advanced experiments
  also
• Created a Live CD of Ubuntu that will boot and
  fully function but not running of my kernel with
  built in RTAI

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Conclusion

• Learned a lot about Linux, the operating system
  and how it works
• Gained a better understanding of how real-time
  systems work and how to implement it on Linux
• Know how to run real-time experiments on an RTAI
  interfaced kernel
• Overall was a huge learning experience and hope
  that the experiments may be used in the future

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Questions

• ????