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?