<p>This thesis describes a further development of a building block for programmable devices in embedded systems handling real-time functionality.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p>

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.

A real-time kernel offers many advantages when developing safety-critical real-time applications. It allows for a modular software architecture and provides many services to help meet any timing constraints imposed on the application. However, these benefits come at a price. The use of a real-time kernel can introduce both latency and non-determinism into the system, forcing the application designer to account for worst case execution times which might be overly pessimistic in the average case. This thesis presents a hardware accelerated implementation of the widely popular real-time kernel FreeRTOS, using only off-the-shelf hardware components. A set of benchmark tests were also developed to compare FreeRTOS and the suggested hardware accelerated implementation with respect to performance and determinism. By migrating critical parts of FreeRTOS into hardware, we were able to greatly reduce the delays associated with the kernel. Furthermore, constant execution times for all supported kernel API calls were achieved, facilitating accurate timing analysis of any application running on top of the real-time kernel. / Användandet av en realtidskärna vid utveckling av säkerhetskritiska realtidsapplikationer har flera fördelar. Det underlättar konstruktionen av en modulär mjukvaruarkitektur och erbjuder flera mekanismer för att klara de tidsrelaterade krav som ställs på en applikation. En realtidskärna kan emellertid introducera långa och icke-deterministiska responstider, vilket tvingar applikationsdesignern att alltid ta höjd för det teoretiska värstafallet även om detta är överdrivet pessimistisk jämfört med medelfallet. I denna uppsats presenteras en hårdvaruaccelererad implementation av realtidskärnan FreeRTOS, konstruerad med hjälp av kommersiellt tillgängliga hårdvarukomponenter. Utöver detta presenteras även en uppsättning tester för att jämföra FreeRTOS samt dess hårdvaruaccelererade motsvarighet med avseende på prestanda och determinism. Genom att migrera kritiska delar av FreeRTOS till hårdvara kunde de långa responstiderna kraftigt reduceras. Utöver detta blev exekveringstiden helt deterministiskt i den hårdvaruaccelererade implementationen, något som möjliggör en mer exakt tidsanalys.

Panoramas or stitched images are used in topographical mapping, panoramic 3D reconstruction, deep space exploration image processing, medical image processing, multimedia broadcasting, system automation, photography and other numerous fields. Generating real-time panoramic images in small embedded computer is of particular importance being lighter, smaller and mobile imaging system. Moreover, this type of lightweight panoramic imaging system is used for different types of industrial or home inspection. A real-time handheld panorama imaging system is developed using embedded real-time Linux as software module and Gumstix Overo and PandaBoard ES as hardware module. The proposed algorithm takes 62.6602 milliseconds to generate a panorama frame from three images using a homography matrix. Hence, the proposed algorithm is capable of generating panorama video with 15.95909365 frames per second. However, the algorithm is capable to be much speedier with more optimal homography matrix. During the development, Ångström Linux and Ubuntu Linux are used as the operating system with Gumstix Overo and PandaBoard ES respectively. The real-time kernel patch is used to configure the non-real-time Linux distribution for real-time operation. The serial communication software tools C-Kermit, Minicom are used for terminal emulation between development computer and small embedded computer. The software framework of the system consist UVC driver, V4L/V4L2 API, OpenCV API, FFMPEG API, GStreamer, x264, Cmake, Make software packages. The software framework of the system also consist stitching algorithm that has been adopted from available stitching methods with necessary modification. Our proposed stitching process automatically finds out motion model of the Spherical camera system and saves the matrix in a look file. The extracted homography matrix is then read from look file and used to generate real-time panorama image. The developed system generates real-time 180° view panorama image from a spherical camera system. Beside, a test environment is also developed to experiment calibration and real-time stitching with different image parameters. It is able to take images with different resolutions as input and produce high quality real-time panorama image. The QT framework is used to develop a multifunctional standalone software that has functions for displaying real-time process algorithm performance in real-time through data visualization, camera system calibration and other stitching options. The software runs both in Linux and Windows. Moreover, the system has been also realized as a prototype to develop a chimney inspection system for a local company. / Main Uddin-Al-Hasan, E-mail: main.hasan@gmail.com