RTOS Architectures that Solve the Diminishing Bandwidth Problem

TL;DR

This paper identifies a longstanding extensibility issue in real-time operating systems where adding more tasks reduces peripheral bandwidth, and proposes three novel RTOS architectures plus hardware solutions to address this problem.

Contribution

It introduces three new RTOS architectures and hardware solutions specifically designed to solve the Diminishing Bandwidth Problem in real-time systems.

Findings

The Defer Structure RTOS Architecture improves bandwidth management.

The Barriers and Requests RTOS Architecture enhances task coordination.

The Strictly Atomic RTOS Architecture ensures consistent peripheral access.

Abstract

The Diminishing Bandwidth Problem is a long standing, previously unidentified, extensibility problem of current real-time operating systems characterized by a superficial dependency between the number of tasks in a system and the maximum bandwidth associated with a peripheral device. In the worst case, this diabolical deficiency will continue to decrease the maximum bandwidth of a peripheral device as more tasks are added to the application. If this is not taken into account, a previously functional application may experience data loss if more tasks are added to it in order to, for example, implement new features. Three novel RTOS architectures that solve the Diminishing Bandwidth Problem are specified and discussed: the Defer Structure RTOS Architecture, the Barriers and Requests RTOS Architecture, and the Strictly Atomic RTOS Architecture. Finally, two hardware solutions to the Diminishing Bandwidth Problem are also presented.