Memory partioning (click image to zoom by 2.4x)

eSOL --- RTOS | Tools | Multi-Core

Nov 20, 2008 – Tokyo, Japan. — eSOL, a leading developer of real time embedded software solutions, announced today that its prominent eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition now provides a "Memory Partitioning Option" to protect memory across different cores and partitions while maintaining software reusability, system reliability, and design flexibility. eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition is based on the symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) model, yet incorporates benefits of the asymmetric multiprocessing (AMP) model to offer deterministic characteristics for real time embedded applications. The Memory Partitioning Option is best suited for automotive applications, aerospace instruments, high-end consumer electronics, and office automation products with memory management units (MMUs) to attain high reliability and high quality within the system.

Recent software and hardware advancements in multi-core technology have opened up new system design opportunities for integrating multiple sub-systems that run on separate processors. The problem with this approach is that each sub-system is growing bigger and becoming more complex, putting one reliable sub-system at risk from another corrupted sub-system sharing the memory space. An alternative solution is paravirtualization or hyper-visor to partition cores into different partitions and deploy different operating systems for each partition; however, this will unnecessarily reduce the flexibility of system design where multiple sub-systems need to work more closely together. Paravirtualization also limits the effective reuse of existing software programs, especially those designed for an AMP environment.

The solution to these challenges is an operating system in which the scheduling domains are separate for AMP and SMP-type cores, and memory protection across different cores and partitions is in place. eSOL has successfully pioneered its memory partitioning technology and incorporated it into its preeminent eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition. It features software reuse and high reliability where a legacy single-core processor-based AMP system can be easily migrated to a multi-core processor system. The device drivers and other system software, such as middleware, can be reused as-is. eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition Memory Partitioning will detect any violation of accessing another partition's local memory, greatly helping the development and assuring the quality of deployed systems.

Furthermore, the benefit of using a single OS extends to development tools. eSOL provides the eBinder integrated development environment for eT-Kernel, consisting of a compiler, configuration tools, shell, debugger, and analysis tools. The same set of tools supports both single-core and multi-core processors.

- More detail about eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition

www.esol.co.jp/english/embedded/et-kernel_multi[...]

- More detail about eT-Kernel Multi-Core Edition Memory Partitioning Option

www.esol.co.jp/english/embedded/et-kernel_memor[...]

"As systems grow larger and more complicated, reliability and high quality have become the highest priority for embedded developers," said Nobuyuki Ueyama, the Executive Vice President of eSOL Co., Ltd. "Compared to hypervisor, which originates from a network server with significantly different design and functionality elements, the Memory Partitioning Option has been developed specifically for embedded systems with eSOL's 30 years of proven formulas and methods. Whether you use a single core or multi-core, with or without memory partitioning, fundamental benefits lie in the fact that you still use a single OS and IDE, and you will get high productivity in your development cycle."

eSOL will demonstrate features of the "Memory Partitioning Option" at its booth (#C-39) at Embedded Technology 2008, Yokohama, Japan, on Nov.19 - 21, 2008.

www.jasa.or.jp/et/english/index.html