Course Highlights:
This course introduces the principles shared by many real-time operating systems, and their use in the development of embedded multitasking application software.

The course begins with the fundamental elements of real-time multitasking embedded application software design and development.  Processor and operating system concepts relevant to multitasking systems are examined, with focus on preemptive task scheduling, intertask communication and synchronization.

The course continues with a detailed survey of popular operating system kernel services, giving many application examples.  Topics include timer services, dynamic memory allocation schemes, network communication programming interfaces and device driver supervisors.  Multitasking code development is discussed and example programs are reviewed and debugged.  Practical experience is gained during student work exercises.

The faculty for this course has extensive experience with a number of major real-time operating systems (RTOSs), including VRTX, pSOS, VxWorks, OSEK / VDX, Nucleus, OSE and others *.  Instructors can provide in-depth insight into the specific workings of these RTOSs during the course, if it is of particular interest.

Objective of the course
The primary goal of this course is to give the participant the skills necessary to develop software for 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 embedded systems software development engineers, software system architects, project managers and technical consultants who are responsible for designing and implementing the software for real-time and embedded computer systems.

Course participants are expected to be knowledgeable in the C programming language.

This is a course for engineers in industry with less than 3 years of experience with real-time operating systems.  [For those with more experience, we recommend the advanced course "Architectural Design of Real-Time Software"  .]


Course Outline:

RTOS Basics - Multitasking

Embedded / Real-Time Systems: Definitions and Issues
Application Software: Tasks and Priority-Based Preemptive Scheduling
Criteria for Decomposition into Tasks
Exercise: Multitasking
Correctness Issues for Embedded / Real-Time Software

RTOS Basics - Communicating between Tasks

Intertask Communication and Synchronization Overview
Messages and Message Queues
Exercise: Intertask Communication via Message Queues
Semaphores: Binary and Counting Semaphores
Exercise: Intertask Synchronization via Semaphore
Dynamic Memory Allocation:  Fragmentation Issues

Additional RTOS Kernel Topics

RTOS Timers: Relative and Absolute Timing
Priority Inversion
Mutexes: Priority Inheritance and Priority Ceiling
Exercise: Priority Inversion
Asynchronous Signals
Exercise: Intertask Communication Mechanisms

RTOS Topics Beyond the Kernel

Network Communication Programming: Sockets Interface
Device I/O Supervisor
Application Software: Device Drivers
Application Software: Interrupt Service Routines
Exercise: Interrupt Service Routines
Operating System Configuration
Development Environment: Classes of Debuggers

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.