Nowadays, the use of embedded operating systems in different embedded
projects is subject to a tremendous growth. Embedded Linux is becoming one of
those most popular EOSs due to its modularity, efficiency, reliability, and
cost. One way to make it hard real-time is to include a real-time kernel like
Xenomai. One of the key characteristics of a Real-Time Operating System (RTOS)
is its ability to meet execution time deadlines deterministically. So, the more
precise and flexible the time management can be, the better it can handle
efficiently the determinism for different embedded applications. RTOS time
precision is characterized by a specific periodic interrupt service controlled
by a software time manager. The smaller the period of the interrupt, the better
the precision of the RTOS, the more it overloads the CPU, and though reduces
the overall efficiency of the RTOS. In this paper, we propose to drastically
reduce these overheads by migrating the time management service of Xenomai into
a configurable hardware component to relieve the CPU. The hardware component is
implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array coupled to the CPU. This work
was achieved in a Master degree project where students could apprehend many
fields of embedded systems: RTOS programming, hardware design, performance
evaluation, etc.Comment: Embed With Linux (EWiLi) workshop, Lorient : France (2012