Course Highlights:
This course examines the activities of high-level design of real-time and embedded systems software that's to be developed using a real-time operating system (RTOS).

The class begins with a quick examination of some fundamental issues in real-time multitasking embedded application software design and development, and briefly reviews several modern techniques for real-time and embedded software requirements specification.  It then quickly focuses on how to structure a software system that must execute within strict deadline and resource limits. Emphasis is placed on multitasking and timing behaviors, rather than object orientation.

The class continues with a detailed examination of intertask communication and synchronization options including mutexes of several varieties.  The next  major subject area of the class is the evaluation of timing performance and quality of a real-time or embedded software design.  This is followed by a session on the design of very large and complex embedded systems.

This course is not a general course about software design theory, but rather it is highly focused on the design of deeply-embedded, time-constrained, resource-constrained multitasking software that will run under the control of a modern RTOS.

Objective of the course
The primary goal of this course is to give the participant the skills necessary to do high-level design of software for real-time and embedded computer systems using a real-time operating system.  This is a very practical, results- oriented course that will provide knowledge and skills that can be applied immediately.

Who Should Attend:
This course is intended for practicing real-time and embedded systems software system architects, project managers and technical consultants who have responsibility for designing, structuring and implementing the software for real-time and embedded computer systems using an RTOS.

Course participants are expected to have thorough familiarity with at least one RTOS.  [This knowledge can also be gained by attending one of the prerequisite introductory courses "Introduction to Embedded Systems and Software" or "Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems".]

Course Outline:

Embedded / Real-Time Systems: Definitions and Issues
Requirements Analysis: Context Diagram and Usage Scenarios
Quick Overview of Entity-Relationship Diagrams, State Transition Diagrams and Statecharts
What You Get in an RTOS, and What You Don't Get

High-Level Software Architecture: Concurrency
The Gomaa Guidelines for Decomposition into Tasks
Exercise: Heart Rhythm Monitor - Design Partitioning

The Correctness Killers: Deadlock, Lockout, Starvation
Software Architecture: Intertask Data Communication
Software Architecture: Intertask Synchronization
Modeling of Message Queues

Exercise: Queuing Calculations for Medical Device
"Standard Circuits" for Real-Time and Multitasking Software Design
Design Patterns for Embedded Software

Evaluating Real-Time and Multitasking Software Designs
Performance Analysis: Task Scheduling Theory and Calculations
Exercise: Medical System Performance Calculations

Final Examination.

INSTRUCTOR:  Dr. David Kalinsky
Dr David Kalinsky has more than thirty years of experience in the design and construction of real-time and embedded computer systems software.  He is a popular lecturer and seminar leader on technologies for embedded software development, appearing before audiences of professional engineers in North America, Europe and Israel.  David regularly presents classes at the Embedded Systems Conferences on topics such as "Architectural Design of Device Drivers" and "Principles of High Availability Embedded Systems Design".

He has built and managed high-tech training programs on aspects of software engineering for the development of real-time and embedded systems for a number of Silicon Valley companies.  He has also been involved in the design of many embedded medical and aerospace systems.  In addition, he has in the past developed and taught training courses on a number of major real-time operating systems (RTOSs), including VRTX, pSOS, VxWorks, OSEK / VDX, Nucleus, OSE and others.  With his broad experience, he has trained thousands of embedded systems software engineers and architectural designers throughout the world.