EventQueue: An Event based and Priority aware Interprocess Communication for Embedded Systems

Abstract

Modern embedded systems are targeting for isolated tasks and for an efficient Interprocess Communication (IPC). However, unifying both requirements is not a trivial challenge. In this paper, we propose EventQueue that unifies both requirements with the assistance of a hardware extension. With a message queue, the data is transferred from one task to another. Thereby, sending the data is performed in hardware, what eliminates the problem of an Operating System Priority Inversion (OS-PI) and concurrently enables the isolation of the tasks among each other. We implemented EventQueue into the mosartMCU, running in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This is illustrated in performance evaluations. The evaluation shows a significant throughput improvement, what makes EventQueue well suitable for future real-time embedded systems.