Adding flexibility and real-time performance by adapting a single processor industrial application to a multiprocessor platform

Abstract

This paper describes a way to get more flexibility in a real-time product and its base platform (real-time operating system and hardware). Industrial hardware and software platforms are due to change and in some cases a new platform is needed after five to ten years, if not earlier. This is costly and there is a need to be able to make the product grow in performance without changing the platform. The ongoing work that is described in this paper is performed in cooperation with industry and the attempt is to convert a single processor software application to a multiprocessor application. By changing the platform to a flexible multiprocessor real-time problem, flexibility and performance is increased, resulting in a more optimized platform for different configurations of the application.