FlexPRET: A Processor Platform for Mixed-Criticality Systems

Michael Zimmer, David Broman, Christopher Shaver and Edward A. Lee

EECS Department
University of California, Berkeley
Technical Report No. UCB/EECS-2013-172
October 23, 2013

http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-172.pdf

Mixed-criticality systems, in which multiple tasks of varying criticality are executed on a single hardware platform, are an emerging research area in real-time embedded systems. High-criticality tasks require spatial and temporal isolation guarantees, whereas low-criticality tasks should efficiently utilize hardware resources. Hardware-based isolation is desirable, but commonly underutilizes hardware resources, which can consist of multiple single-core, multicore, or multithreaded processors. We present FlexPRET, a processor designed specifically for mixed-criticality systems by allowing each task to make a trade-off between hardware-based isolation and efficient processor utilization. FlexPRET uses fine-grained multithreading with flexible scheduling and timing instructions to provide this functionality.


BibTeX citation:

@techreport{Zimmer:EECS-2013-172,
    Author = {Zimmer, Michael and Broman, David and Shaver, Christopher and Lee, Edward A.},
    Title = {FlexPRET: A Processor Platform for Mixed-Criticality Systems},
    Institution = {EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley},
    Year = {2013},
    Month = {Oct},
    URL = {http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-172.html},
    Number = {UCB/EECS-2013-172},
    Abstract = {Mixed-criticality systems, in which multiple tasks of varying criticality are executed on a single hardware platform, are an emerging research area in real-time embedded systems. High-criticality tasks require spatial and temporal isolation guarantees, whereas low-criticality tasks should efficiently utilize hardware resources. Hardware-based isolation is desirable, but commonly underutilizes hardware resources, which can consist of multiple single-core, multicore, or multithreaded processors. We present FlexPRET, a processor designed specifically for mixed-criticality systems by allowing each task to make a trade-off between hardware-based isolation and efficient processor utilization. FlexPRET uses fine-grained multithreading with flexible scheduling and timing instructions to provide this functionality.}
}

EndNote citation:

%0 Report
%A Zimmer, Michael
%A Broman, David
%A Shaver, Christopher
%A Lee, Edward A.
%T FlexPRET: A Processor Platform for Mixed-Criticality Systems
%I EECS Department, University of California, Berkeley
%D 2013
%8 October 23
%@ UCB/EECS-2013-172
%U http://www2.eecs.berkeley.edu/Pubs/TechRpts/2013/EECS-2013-172.html
%F Zimmer:EECS-2013-172