Industrial Automation
To enable real-time and Windows applications to run natively on assigned processor cores, INtime for Windows partitions system resources with the help of stan- dard Windows application pro- gramming interfaces (APIs). The INtime for Windows RTOS and the Windows OS each get exclusive access to the processor I/Os and signals that they need (Figure 3). The real-time processes running on INtime for Windows are not subject to Windows tasking or virtual memory mechanisms. Furthermore, developers have access to standard Windows fea- tures and off-the-shelf applica- tions without compromising the real-time control that industrial applications demand. These con- trol applications achieve micro- second response times while exercising complete control over real-time processes with reliable and predictable results.
For the IoT gateway, the Internet interface and its associated secu- rity software are two additional computing workloads
that the
system must process along with industrial control and Windows-based HMI functions. Applications on either side of the partition communicate via a built-in virtual Ethernet interface and an NTX service that enable content sharing of real-time objects, as well as supervisory control. As applications scale in capacity and functionality, this communication mechanism is much easier to maintain than relying only on the use of shared memory regions.
Familiar Development Environment
With the ability to combine real-time and non-real-time processing workloads on a single IoT gateway comes the desire to combine software development environments. INtime for Windows allows developers to edit, compile, and debug RTOS applications using off-the-shelf Microsoft Visual Studio* just as they do with standard Windows applications. There is no need to purchase or learn addi- tional development tools. Only the time-critical parts of an applica- tion must be coded in INtime. All other application parts, like pre- and post-processing and HMI, can be developed for and executed within the Windows environment.
Making Effective Use of Embedded Hypervisors An extension of TenAsys' explicit partitioning approach, TenAsys eVM* for Windows, provides a hypervisor to allow for a different OS (e.g., Linux*) that runs alongside and independently of Windows and the INtime RTOS (Figure 4). Although it’s a hypervisor-based virtualization solution, TenAsys eVM virtualizes services only where
52 | 2016 | 13th Edition | Embedded Innovator
absolutely needed. This approach ensures the guest RTOS retains its deterministic and real-time capabilities and provides the greatest versatility in supporting legacy RTOSs or general and proprietary OSs without the need for modification. TenAsys has tested eVM for Windows with a wide range of guest OSs, including Linux, VxWorks*, QNX*, and Windows* CE.
TenAsys eVM for Windows runs on Intel processors enabled with Intel® Virtualization Technology (Intel®
VT). Intel VT reduces any potential per-
formance burden by providing a hardware-assist to allocate memory and real (as opposed to virtualized) I/O to a specific partition. This allo- cation greatly minimizes latency.
Gateways to Consolidation Combining workload processing on gateways is a good way to reduce hardware and software costs, as well as power needs. It also future- proofs a solution by allowing for processor technology migration and new software applications.
Intel IoT Gateway Technology-based solutions equipped with Intel Atom or Intel Core processors provide an excellent embedded PC platform for multifunction designs. With a system partitioned by INtime for Windows, these gateways are application-ready to run standard, out-of-the-box Windows and enable machine manu- facturers to add third-party software. For example, a gateway can provide the software environment for a computer numerical control
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intel.com/embedded-innovator
Real-Time Windows Application
User Mode
Kernel Mode
Windows Processes Windows APIs INtime NTX API Windows CPU Core CPU #1
and Drivers Dedicated
Windows Kernel
Real-Time Processes Real-Time INtime NTX APIs
Real-Time Kernel
INtime CPU Core
Dual-Core Processor INtime NTX IPC
Figure 3. CPU #2 Dedicated INtime
Ring 3 Ring 0
TenAsys' explicitly partitioned solution gives the INtime* RTOS and the Microsoft Windows* OS exclusive access to the processor I/Os and signals that they need.
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