This thesis describes a further development of a building block for programmable devices in embedded systems handling real-time functionality. Embedded systems are included in a variety of products within different technical areas such as industrial automation, consumer electronics, automotive industry, and communication-, and multimedia systems. Products ranging from trains and airplanes to microwave ovens and washing machines are controlled by embedded systems. Programmable devices constitute a part of these embedded systems. Today, a programmable device can include a complete system containing building blocks connected with each other via programs written using a hardware description language. The programmable devices can be programmed and changed over and over again and this flexibility makes it possible to explore how these building blocks can best be designed in relation to system requirements, before final implementation. This thesis describes a further development of a building block for programmable devices implemented in a non-traditional way, i.e., the implementation is written using both hardware description language and traditional software languages. This new building block handles real-time functionality in a non-traditional way that enables certain benefits, such as increased performance, predictability and less memory consumption. Using a non-traditional implementation also has its drawbacks, and e.g., extensions and adjustments can be hard to handle since modifications are required in both hardware and software programming languages. The new building block was investigated in order to see how it could be facilitated when used for real-time functionality. The configurability of the block was extended which enables further customization of the building block. This leads to the possibility to use the block within a wider spectrumof applications. It is also possible to reduce the size and cost of the final product since resource usage can be optimized. Furthermore, a mathematicalmodel estimating resource usage for real-time functionality has been developed. The model enables distinctive trade-offs comparisons, and guidance for system designers, when considering what type of real-time operating system to use in a certain design.

Embedded systems are commonplace, often with real-time requirements, limited resources and increasingly complex workloads with high demands on security and reliability. The complexity of these systems calls for extensive developer experience and many tools has been created to aid in the development of the software running on such devices. One of these tools, the Real-Time For the Masses (RTFM) concurrency framework developed at Luleå University of Technology (LTU), is built upon a pre-existing, well established and theoretically underpinned execution model providing deadlock free execution and strong guarantees about correctness. The framework is further enhanced by the memory safety provided by Rust, a modern systems programming language. This thesis documents the work done towards improving the framework by studying the possibility to make it extendable. For this, a model of the present layout is required, which in turn requires a solid understanding of Rust's way to structure code. To realise such a large structural change it was advisable to join the open-source RTFM community as a core developer. This role included new responsibilities and required work within different areas of the framework, not only directly related to the primary goal. It also provided the insight that in order to reach the desired extendable structure, many other improvements had to be done first, including the removal of large experimental features. To aid the development, usage of state of the art Continuous Integration testing (CI) were key. Changes to such systems are also part of the development process. The name of the project changed in the middle of this thesis work, going from RTFM to Real-Time Interrupt-driven Concurrency (RTIC). The implemented features and usability fixes detailed in this thesis improves the user experience for embedded system developers resulting in increased productivity while making the development process of such systems more accessible. These general improvements will be part of the next release of the framework. A version v0.6.0-alpha.0 of the framework has been released for testing. The experiences gained related to open-source project governance during this work are also presented.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The integrated Network-Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project has developed standards for network-based telemetry systems. While these standards are based largely on the existing body of commercial networking protocols, the Telemetry Network System (TmNS) has more stringent performance requirements in the areas of latency, throughput, operation over constrained links, and quality of service (QoS) than typical networked applications. A variety of initial evaluations were undertaken to exercise the interfaces of the current standards and determine real-world performance. The core end-to-end performance initial evaluations focus collectively on the movement of telemetry data through the TmNS. These initial evaluations addressed two areas: end-to-end data delivery and parametric data extraction. This paper presents the approach taken by these ongoing efforts and provides initial results. The latest results will be presented at ITC 2010.

ITC/USA 2007 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Third Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 22-25, 2007 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / This paper presents an analysis of various methods to address the reproduction of recorded Chapter 10 data in real-time. The standard IRIG 106 Chapter 10 recording format is quickly becoming the most commonly used data recording format in the community. As such, a lot of emphasis has been put on recording requirements including time-stamping, data multiplexing, etc. However, there are additional needs that must be considered when using Chapter 10 as the only permanent data record. It is often necessary to reproduce the original data stream exactly as it was recorded with all its timing characteristics. This paper presents various tradeoffs discovered while designing a real-time playback system for recorded chapter 10 data files. In particular, techniques such as just-enough buffering, data re-ordering, pre-processing, etc will be discussed.

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / The Common Display System (CDS) will provide all NAVAIRWD sites with a flexible Range real-time situational awareness and telemetry display/processing capability. CDS will have an extensible framework enabling all sites to quickly and conveniently develop Range unique plugins to accommodate new requirements or functionality not presently found in the applications common core plug-ins. Range unique plug-ins are separate and distinct from the application's common core engine.

BACKGROUND:Cryptococcus gattii has been the cause of an ongoing outbreak starting in 1999 on Vancouver Island, British Columbia and spreading to mainland Canada and the US Pacific Northwest. In the course of the outbreak, C. gattii has been identified outside of its previously documented climate, habitat, and host disease. Genotyping of C. gattii is essential to understand the ecological and geographical expansion of this emerging pathogen.METHODS:We developed and validated a mismatch amplification mutation assay (MAMA) real-time PCR panel for genotyping C. gattii molecular types VGI-VGIV and VGII subtypes a,b,c. Subtype assays were designed based on whole-genome sequence of 20 C. gattii strains. Publically available multilocus sequence typing (MLST) data from a study of 202 strains was used for the molecular type (VGI-VGIV) assay design. All assays were validated across DNA from 112 strains of diverse international origin and sample types, including animal, environmental and human.RESULTS:Validation revealed each assay on the panel is 100% sensitive, specific and concordant with MLST. The assay panel can detect down to 0.5 picograms of template DNA.CONCLUSIONS:The (MAMA) real-time PCR panel for C. gattii accurately typed a collection of 112 diverse strains and demonstrated high sensitivity. This is a time and cost efficient method of genotyping C. gattii best suited for application in large-scale epidemiological studies.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / We need to begin to define what the future of point-to-point telemetry will be in the new world of wireless communications, increasing bandwidth requirements, the integration of test and training, and modeling and simulation (M&S) interacting with open air ranges. The Advanced Range Telemetry Program will introduce several new technologies to the telemetry community over the next several years, how will we use and build on them for the future? What kind of architecture will we need to be able to interact with the M&S and Training communities? How do we create that architecture and to what use would it be put by a test program? The answer, we believe, is to build the equivalent of a network in the sky. An extension of the Internet, in simplistic terms. The system under test (SUT), or the systems in training would become nodes of a large interactive network. Instead of the SUT being treated as something outside the sphere of control for the range, the SUTs onboard instrumentation systems would become an integral part of the greater range complex. This paper will address what the architecture of a real-time telemetry network might look like and how it could be implemented within the telemetry community.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / November 04-07, 1991 / Riviera Hotel and Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / New techniques for using Ethernet in real time systems are applicable to the typical requirements of high performance Telemetry installations. Most TM installations around the world today are currently implemented using specialized, high speed, point-to-point data paths which have reached their limits in performance. By using Ethernet in real time as a “Data Highway” path, system performance is optimized, and the effective life of a Telemetry system can be significantly extended. Additionally, by integrating a Local Area Network into the system, further advantages are realized. New graphics display hardware and software may be used to provide virtually an “offthe-shelf”, and very cost-effective major system upgrade. Meanwhile, little modification to the host processor hardware or software system is required. This paper examines these premises, and discusses several examples of major Telemetry systems which have made this upgrade.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 30-November 02, 1995 / Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada / Satellite transmission systems have proven themselves very effective in a variety of applications. One such application is the transmission of telemetry (TM) data and associated information in a near real-time environment. This paper describes the satellite data relay system currently utilized by the Telemetry Data Center at Patuxent River, Maryland and the corresponding remote receiving site, and discusses the performance of this system.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 17-20, 1994 / Town & Country Hotel and Conference Center, San Diego, California / This paper discusses the use of DSP technology in the embedded real time ingest and pre-processing of weather satellite data. Specifically, case studies are presented in the use of Texas Instrument TMS 320 processors as front-end handlers of GOES MODE AAA and GOES GVAR data formats.