Concurrent and Real-Time Programming in Java

 Electronic copies of course foils available via

 http://www-course.cs.york.ac.uk/crt
 Course book: “Concurrent and Real-Time Programming in
Java” Andy Wellings, Wiley, 2004 (£20.99 from Amazon)
 Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) Versions 1.0.1 is
available from
 http://www.rtj.org

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Books

RTSJ Version 0.9 RTSJ Version 1.0.1

© Andy Wellings, 2004
 Other books

RTSJ Version 1.0 RTSJ Version 0.9

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Practicals
 Start week 3
 Demonstrators:

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Thursday 14.15
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


© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Thursday 15.15
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© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Prerequisites
 You should already:
 be a competent programmer in an imperative programming
language like C, Pascal, Ada, C++, C# etc

 be able to program in sequential Java

 have a good understanding of Operating System Principles, in

particular the mechanisms needed to support concurrency, e.g.
processes, semaphores, etc

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Overall Technical Aims of the Course

 To understand the basic requirements of concurrent and

real-time systems

 To understand how these requirements have influenced

the design of Java and the Real-Time Specification for
Java

 To be able to program advanced concurrent real-time Java

systems

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Course Contents I
 Introduction to Course, Concurrent and Real-Time Programming
 Concurrent Programming in Java
 Communication and Synchronization
 Motivation for, and an overview of, the RTSJ
 Memory Management
 Clocks and Time
 Scheduling and Schedulable Objects
 Asynchronous Events and Handlers

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Course Contents II
 Real-Time Threads
 Asynchronous Transfer of Control
 Resource Control
 Schedulability Analysis
 Conclusions

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Concurrent Programming
 The name given to programming notation and techniques
for expressing potential parallelism and solving the
resulting synchronization and communication problems

 Implementation of parallelism is a topic in computer

systems (hardware and software) that is essentially
independent of concurrent programming

 Concurrent programming is important because it provides

an abstract setting in which to study parallelism without
getting bogged down in the implementation details

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Why we need it
 To fully utilise the processor
2
10
Response time in seconds

1
10
0 human tape
10
-1
10 floppy
-2
10
10
-3 CD
-4
10
-5
10
-6
10
-7
10 memory
-8
10

10
-9
processor

© Andy Wellings, 2004

Parallelism Between CPU and I/O Devices
CPU I/O Device

Initiate I/O
Operation Process I/O
Request

Signal Completion

Interrupt I/O
Routine
I/O Finished
Continue with
Outstanding Requests

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Why we need it

 To allow the expression of potential parallelism so that

more than one computer can be used to solve the problem

 Consider trying to find the way through a maze

© Andy Wellings, 2004

Sequential Maze Search
Concurrent Maze Search
 Why we need it
 To model the parallelism in the real world

 Virtually all real-time systems are inherently concurrent —

devices operate in parallel in the real world
 This is, perhaps, the main reason to use concurrency

© Andy Wellings, 2004

Air Traffic Control
Why we need it
 Alternative: use sequential programming techniques
 The programmer must construct the system as the cyclic
execution of a program sequence to handle the various
concurrent activities
 This complicates the programmer's task and involves
considerations of structures which are irrelevant to the control
of the activities in hand
 The resulting programs will be more obscure and inelegant
 Decomposition of the problem is more complex
 Parallel execution of the program on more than one processor
is more difficult to achieve
 The placement of code to deal with faults is more problematic

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Terminology
 A concurrent program is a collection of autonomous
sequential processes, executing (logically) in parallel
 Each process has a single thread of control
 The actual implementation (i.e. execution) of a collection
of processes usually takes one of three forms.
Multiprogramming
 processes multiplex their executions on a single processor
Multiprocessing
 processes multiplex their executions on a multiprocessor system
where there is access to shared memory
Distributed Processing
 processes multiplex their executions on several processors which
do not share memory

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 What is a real-time system?
 A real-time system is any information processing system
which has to respond to externally generated input stimuli
within a finite and specified period
 the correctness depends not only on the logical result but also
the time it was delivered

 failure to respond is as bad as the wrong response!

 The computer is a component in a larger engineering system =>
EMBEDDED COMPUTER SYSTEM
 99% of all processors are for the embedded systems market

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Terminology
 Hard real-time — systems where it is absolutely imperative
that responses occur within the required deadline. E.g. Flight
control systems.

 Soft real-time — systems where deadlines are important but

which will still function correctly if deadlines are
occasionally missed. E.g. Data acquisition system.

 Firm real-time — systems which are soft real-time but in

which there is no benefit from late delivery of service.

A system may have all hard, soft and real real-time subsystems
Many systems may have a cost function associated with
missing each deadline
© Andy Wellings, 2004
 A simple fluid control system
Interface

Pipe

Input flow Flow meter

reading

Processing

Valve
Output valve
angle
Time
Computer

© Andy Wellings, 2004

A Grain-Roasting Plant

Bin

Furnace
Fuel Tank

grain
Pipe

fuel

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 A Process Control System
Process
Control
Computer

Temperature Finished
Valve Stirrer
Chemicals Transducer Products
and
Materials

PLANT
© Andy Wellings, 2004
 A Production Control System

Production
Control
System

Finished
Products
Parts

Machine Tools Manipulators Conveyor Belt

© Andy Wellings, 2004

A Command and Control System
Command
Post

Command and Control

Computer

Temperature, Pressure, Power and so on

Terminals Sensors/Actuators

© Andy Wellings, 2004

A Typical Embedded System

Real-Time Algorithms for Engineering

Interface
Clock Digital Control System

Data Logging Remote

Monitoring System

Database
Data Retrieval Display
and Display Devices

Operator’s Operator Real-Time Computer

Console Interface
© Andy Wellings, 2004
 Characteristics of a RTS
 Large and complex — vary from a few hundred lines of
assembler or C to 20 million lines of Ada estimated for the
Space Station Freedom
 Concurrent control of separate system components —
devices operate in parallel in the real-world; better to
model this parallelism by concurrent entities in the
program
 Facilities to interact with special purpose hardware — need
to be able to program devices in a reliable and abstract
way

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Characteristics of a RTS
 Extreme reliability and safe — embedded systems typically
control the environment in which they operate; failure to
control can result in loss of life, damage to environment or
economic loss
 Guaranteed response times — we need to be able to
predict with confidence the worst case response times for
systems; efficiency is important but predictability is
essential

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Real-time Programming Languages
 Assembly languages
 Sequential systems implementation languages — e.g.
RTL/2, Coral 66, Jovial, C.
 Both normally require operating system support.
 High-level concurrent languages. Impetus from the
software crisis. e.g. Ada, Chill, Modula-2, Mesa, Java.
 No operating system support!
 We will focus on Java and the Real-Time Specification for
Java
 See Burns, Wellings, Real-Time Systems and Programming
Languages, 3rd Edition, 2001, Addison Wesley for a
general discussion on other languages and operating
systems

© Andy Wellings, 2004

Java Architecture

JBC
JBC JBC

JVM
Real-time Operating Hardware Standalone
System JVM
JVM

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Summary I
 The motivations for concurrent programming have been
presented:
 fully utilize the processor
 allow parallel execution
 model real world parallelism
 Two main classes of real-time systems have been
identified:
 hard real-time systems
 soft real-time systems

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Summary II
 The basic characteristics of a real-time or embedded
computer system are:
 largeness and complexity,
 manipulation of real numbers,
 extreme reliability and safety,
 concurrent control of separate system components,
 real-time control,
 interaction with hardware interfaces,
 efficient implementation.

© Andy Wellings, 2004

 Further Reading
 Chapter 1 of Burns and Wellings, “Real-Time Systems and
Programming Languages”, 3rd Edition, 2001 (in library)

© Andy Wellings, 2004