Scheduling reconfiguration activities of run-time reconfigurable RTOS using an aperiodic task server

Abstract

Reconfigurable computing based on hybrid architectures, comprising general purpose processor (CPU) and Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), is very attractive because it can provide high computational performance as well as flexibility to support today's embedded systems requirements. However, the relative high reconfiguration costs often represent an obstacle when using such architectures for run-time reconfigurable systems. In order to overcome this barrier the used real-time operating system must explicitly respect the reconfiguration time. In such systems, the reconfiguration activities need to be carried out during run-time without causing the application tasks to miss their deadlines. In this paper, we show how we model these activities as aperiodic jobs. Therefore, we apply the server-based method from the real-time schedule theory to the scheduling of aperiodic activities. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.