Emulation of a Realtime OS in STREAM

Motivation

The goal of the ESPRIT project STREAM is to develop a scalable open operating system suitable for embedded systems for market segments as telecommunications, device control, industrial automation and consumer electronics.

Objectives

By downsizing the existing microkernel technology from Chorus Systems towards a so called basic kernel framework the STREAM project results in a kernel design providing

POSIX compliance
portability
openness
object oriented design

A family of operating systems is created, which covers a broad spectrum from small embedded kernels with realtime capabilities to fully configured POSIX and UNIX compliant implementations. All family members are based on the same base technology provided by Chorus systems around some basic kernel framework. The interaction between different family members and even the porting of various kernel instances should be very easy. The project is driven by a consortium of telecommunication companies and system vendors, headed by Chorus systems.

Context of Work

As one part of the STREAM project various kernel versions are configured to provide a basis for proprietary operating systems.

A realtime OS from Siemens Munich is one of these operating systems. It is an embedded realtime system and part of its functionality will be provided by an instance of a STREAM micro kernel.

Our Contribution

Due to the high modularity of the used realtime system the porting could easily be divided into independent modules. One module in this context was the synchronization and process signalling part. This part has been implemented and tested within an industrial cooperation which was established between the Siemens Corporate Research Munich and RWTH Aachen.