RTOS Comparison Questions

CS 684 24th March 2009

Outline
Lynx OS VxWorks QNX/Neutrino VRTX RT Linux RTAI Free RTOS UC/OS II RTOS Internals Miscellaneous

Lynx OS
How does LynxOS offer memory protection through hardware MMUs? / what is MMU based memory protection? What are Kernel Plug-Ins (KPIs)? We have KPIs in Lynx OS and similarly in VRTX; each application can add its own system calls. Are both of them effectively serving the same way?

VxWorks
VxWorks has backward compatibility to previous version features for exception handling and template support. Will that increase the footprint of the kernel? In the slides it is given that lynx OS is a self hosted OS and because of that there is a need for memory protection. Is VxWorks also a self hosted OS? Is that the reason for having memory protection in VxWorks? As VxWorks uses RR Scheduling, more context switching should happen, which in turn should result in more overhead. But in the slides, its given that VxWorks incurs less overhead. How is it possible?

VxWorks (Contd.)
Why does RTOSes such as VxWorks and QNX encourage the use of message queuing or mailboxes as the primary IPCs? For VxWorks, reduced context switch time is achieved by saving only those register windows which are actually in use (on a Sparc). What do we mean by Sparc? Secondly, to increase the response time, it saves the register windows in a register cache useful for recurring tasks. What are the replacement algorithms used for updating the contents of the cache and avoiding access to stale data?

VxWorks (Contd.)
What mechanism for IPC is used by VxWorks and how efficient is it as compared to other RTOSes? VxWorks uses preemptive round robin scheduling. Round robin means each task is allocated a time slot to run on the CPU. If it is a high priority task then also it will use only the allocated time slice; then other low priority task takes place. Is the priority rotating or not? In most of the cases, there is deficiency in RR as compared to EDF & RMS scheduling algorithm. Also, as RR takes more context switches which in turn means more latency. In spite of this, VxWorks is the most popular RTOS. How is it possible?

QNX/Neutrino
The slides say that in QNX/Neutrino, there is message based priority tracking feature. What is priority tracking? Why is it necessary? How is it done based on messages? How does QNX/Neutrino maximize application portability ?

VRTX
VRTX has been certified by the US FAA for use in mission and life critical applications such as avionics. When there are so many RTOSes, how do we verify them and select the best one for a particular application?

RT Linux
How does the use of FIFO in RT Linux ensure that the real time task is never blocked?

RTAI
How does LXRT in RTAI manages user space application in kernel space ? Jitter and latency are low for RTAI than RTLinux. How can this be justified? In RTAI, how significant is the overhead of using the LXRT API?

Free RTOS
Free RTOS has the following feature: It offers a smaller and easier real-time processing alternative for applications where eCos and embedded Linux (or RT Linux) won't fit, are not appropriate, or are not available. What are such applications, where RT Linux is not appropriate? What parameters make them inappropriate?

UC/OS - II
UC/OS II features: Memory management is performed using fixed size partitions. What is the typical size of each partition. Will there be any memory wastage in the partitions? Why UC/OS-II is suitable for use in safety critical embedded system? What are the features to be considered while selecting RTOS?

RTOS Internals
How does memory management in a RTOS differ from that in a conventional OS, how is it implemented across the various RTOS's mentioned. An operating system can be monolithic or micro kernel based. Which one is the best for real time application design ? What is the limitation of each for real time application and which are monolithic or micro kernel based from the list given in the slide ? Elaborate feedback driven priority assignment.

Miscellaneous
Selection guide (not on cost) and testing (simulation) tools for COTS RTOS solutions requested. UC/Probe from Micrium, how it has been used for Firebird-IV hard RT applications? Suppose I want to use RTOS in an application like Nuclear Power Plant. Which should be the RTOS I should select out of the existing ones?