DrTee

Start date is speculative. Missing an End Date

The DrTEE project is concerned with Distributed Real-Time Execution Environments and in particular with those applications which are implemented using the Ada 95 programming language. The project has involved the design and implementation of a testbed intended to support experiments in kernel design, architecture design and the practical application of our feasibility analysis.

The testbed takes the form of a number of nodes each comprising a Single Board Computer (SBC) built around the Motorola MC68376 micro controller. Communication between nodes is achieved using the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol which provides prioritised and deterministic communications facilities.

In order to allow experimentation involving Ada 95 applications, the Gnat Ada 95 compiler had been ported to the hardware platform used in the testbed. This porting process has required the development of a predictable and bounded kernel which provides the run-time support required by Gnat. The kernel also provides a high level interface to the CAN communication system. This interface utilises the low level CAN communications facilities to provide provide a deterministic, prioritised communication system which allows arbitrary message lengths and node and task level message addressing.