The Many Approaches to Real-Time and Safety Critical Linux Systems

Linux and Real-Time have become a widespread combination that is deployed in many industrial solutions. Real-Time requirements are often combined with safety requirements, and satisfying both is only …

Linux and Real-Time have become a widespread combination that is deployed in many industrial solutions. Real-Time requirements are often combined with safety requirements, and satisfying both is only possible when the whole system architecture is designed with both goals in mind, which goes well beyond just applying the preempt_rt or Xenomai patch sets. Particular attention in this talk is given to partitioning systems into critical and uncritical components, which has gained substantial attraction with the advent of multi-core CPUs in the embedded segment. In the talk, we discuss possible architectural approaches to safety-critical real-time Linux systems, and highlight their advantages and disadvantages. We also provide guidelines on which architectural option is suited best for which appliances and use-cases.