Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Real Time Systems

Introduction

Radek Pelánek
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Organization of the Course

language
materials, written communication – should be in English
oral communication – English, Czech
active lectures
exercises during lectures
lab sessions (B130)
evaluation:
4 assignments (50 points)
final test (50 points)
minimal requirement: at least 50% from each part
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Materials

course content based mainly on books (these are not

easily available)
course web page:
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xpelanek/IA158/
slides (optimized mainly for lecture, not for self-study)
references to relevant articles
⇒ you should attend lectures
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Assignments

1 Scheduling (pen and pencil)

2 Programming (C/C++ and POSIX or Java)
3 System construction (Lego Mindstorms)
4 Verification (Uppaal tool)
This is real time course ⇒ deadlines are strict.
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

This Lecture

1 introduction, basic notions

2 examples of real time systems
3 overview of the course
4 puzzles
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

What are Real Time System?

Definition (Real time system)
A real time system is a system that must satisfy explicit
(bounded) response-time constraints or risk severe
consequences, including failure.

Definition (Real time system)

A real time system is one whose logical correctness is based on
both the correctness of the outputs and their timeliness.

Definition (Real time system)

A real time system is any information processing activity or
system which has to respond to externally generated input
stimuli within a finite and specified period.
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Related Notions

reactive system continuous interaction with the

environment (as opposed to information
processing)
embedded system computer system encapsulated in its
environment (device it controls),
combination of computer hardware and
software, dedicated to specific purpose
safety-critical system a failure may cause injury, loss of lives,
significant financial loss
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Examples

Are there any examples in this room (building)?

real time system, reactive system, embedded system,
safety-critical system
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Example from (2010) News

Toyota “sudden acceleration problem”

2010 version:
sudden accelaration of cars
fault in electronic system?
related to our concepts – real-time system, reactive
system, embedded system, safety-critical system
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Example from (2010) News

Toyota “sudden acceleration problem”

2010 version:
sudden accelaration of cars
fault in electronic system?
related to our concepts – real-time system, reactive
system, embedded system, safety-critical system
2011 version:
“pedal misapplication” (accelerator, brake)
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Embedded Systems

major application of real time concepts

important application: it is estimated that 99 % of all
processors go into embedded systems
we will not consider embedded systems per se, but you
should have them in mind
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Notions

Block Diagram of RT System

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Concept of Time

What is Time?

definitions:
The measured or measurable period during which an
action, process, or condition exists or continues.
(Merriam-Webster)
The inevitable passing of events from past to present
then future. (Wiktionary)
measure (second):
1/86400 of a mean solar day
duration of 9192631770 periods of the radiation
corresponding to the transition between two hyperfine
levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom

for details visit suitable philosophy or physics course

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Concept of Time

Real Time vs Fast

Time must be considered relatively to the environment.

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Concept of Time

Real Time vs Fast

There was a man who drowned crossing a stream with an

average depth of 15 centimeters.

fast ∼ low average time

real time ∼ predictability, bounded worst case time
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Concept of Time

Soft and Hard Real Time

deadline – a time within which the task should be completed

hard RT system missing a deadline: failure of the system
aircraft control, nuclear plant control, detection
of critical conditions, ...
soft RT system missing a deadline: undesirable for
performance reasons multimedia application,
booking system, displaying status information, ...
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Concept of Time

Soft and Hard Real Time (cont.)

most systems: combination of both hard and soft

deadlines
firm deadline: missing a deadline makes the task useless
(similar to hard deadline), however the deadline may be
missed occasionally (similar to soft deadline)
generalization: cost function associated with missing each
deadline
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Characteristics of RT Systems

Characteristics of RT Systems

mixture of hardware and software: use of special purpose

hardware and architectures
(not covered)
concurrent control of separate system components:
devices operate in parallel in the real-world, better to
model this parallelism by concurrent entities in the
program
(covered)
extreme reliability and safety: RT systems are usually
safety-critical
(covered)
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Characteristics of RT Systems

Predictability

predictability is one of the most important

predictability is one of the most difficult to achieve:
cache, DMA, interrupt handling
memory management
priority inversion
difficult to calculate worst-case execution times
...
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Examples

most of the course – abstract models of RT system

now – several concrete examples
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Navigation System

aircraft navigation system

inputs:
x, y , z accelerometer pulses (5ms rate)
roll, pitch, yaw angles (40ms rate)
temperature (1s rate)
output:
compute actual velocity (40ms rate)
output velocity do display (1s rate)

processes are concurrent and have different rates

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Nuclear Plant Monitoring System

monitoring system for nuclear plant

event triggered by a signal at various security levels –
must respond in 1s
critical signals (over-temperature of nuclear core) – must
respond in 1ms

processes have different priorities, criticality

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Airline Reservation System

reservation of tickets for airlines

distributed system, several agents may use the system
concurrently
turnaround time less than 15s
no overbooking

processes share resources

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Process Control System

most of all ... real time!

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Process Control System (cont.)

real time systems are complex

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Sample Examples

Production Control System

and even more complex

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Areas of Application

Areas of Application

Write down different examples of real-time systems.

Try to formulate ‘areas of application’.
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Areas of Application

Areas of Application I

vehicle control systems embedded systems in cars, space

missions
transport control systems railway switching networks, traffic
control, air traffic control
plant control production and manufacturing
control, nuclear plants, chemical
plants
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Areas of Application

Areas of Application II

databases booking systems, telephone switching, radar

tracking
home appliances mobile phones, microwave ovens, washing
machines, fridges
image processing multimedia, mobile phones, digital cameras,
industrial inspection systems, medical
imaging devices
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Infamous Real Time System

several infamous real time systems

examples of:
what can go wrong
significance of consequences
see also “Collection of Software Bugs”
http://www5.in.tum.de/~huckle/bugse.html
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

exploded 40 seconds after start during the first flight (1996)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUrqdUyEpI
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

disintegration – caused by full nozzle deflection on all

engines
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

disintegration – caused by full nozzle deflection on all

engines
nozzle deflections – commanded on basis of data
transmitted by inertial reference computer
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

disintegration – caused by full nozzle deflection on all

engines
nozzle deflections – commanded on basis of data
transmitted by inertial reference computer
data – not real data but post-mortem debug information;
unhandled floating point exception
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

disintegration – caused by full nozzle deflection on all

engines
nozzle deflections – commanded on basis of data
transmitted by inertial reference computer
data – not real data but post-mortem debug information;
unhandled floating point exception
exception handling – turned off in order to squeeze CPU
utilization
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Ariane 5

disintegration – caused by full nozzle deflection on all

engines
nozzle deflections – commanded on basis of data
transmitted by inertial reference computer
data – not real data but post-mortem debug information;
unhandled floating point exception
exception handling – turned off in order to squeeze CPU
utilization
unexpected value – in a task used for guiding the rocket
while still at the launch pad; left running for 40s after
lift-off, due to extra time allocated in case of short pauses
during countdown
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Mars Pathfinder

unmanned spacecraft, landed on Mars in 1997

frequent deadlocks ⇒ resets, loss of time
caused by classical priority inversion problem
(mutex-protected shared data area)
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Apollo 11

the first landing on the Moon

software problem during descent – landing nearly aborted
engineers in charge decided to ignore the problem – later
awarded the same medal as astronauts
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Apollo 11

spacecraft equipped with a computer for navigation and

guidance (programmed in assembler)
overloaded control system (computer too slow to handle
all tasks concurrently) → buffer overflow → alarm signals
low-priority jobs were not executed (not critical)
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Therac-25

mid 80’, computer controlled therapeutic radiation

machine for treatment of tumors
six deaths and serious injuries due to massive radiation
overdoses
caused by race conditions (wrong mutual exclusion)
two operation modes: electron mode (low energy), X-ray
mode (high energy)
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Therac-25
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Therac-25: Reconstructed Accident

operator erroneously enters X-ray mode, realizes the

mistake, switches back to electron mode – all within 8
seconds
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Therac-25: Reconstructed Accident

operator erroneously enters X-ray mode, realizes the

mistake, switches back to electron mode – all within 8
seconds
during that time window:
treatment phase task is ignoring keyboard input
(busy-wait loop)
other tasks register the edit
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Therac-25: Reconstructed Accident

operator erroneously enters X-ray mode, realizes the

mistake, switches back to electron mode – all within 8
seconds
during that time window:
treatment phase task is ignoring keyboard input
(busy-wait loop)
other tasks register the edit
unshielded high energy radiation, no indication to the
operator
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Patriot Missile Control System

system used to protect Saudi Arabia during Gulf War

detects flying objects, performs prediction; trajectory
matches prediction ⇒ Patriot missile launched
25. 2. 1991 - Scud missile hit city of Dhahran, classified
as false alarm (no Patriot missile launched)
software bug: real-time clock accumulating a delay of 57
microseconds per minute; 100 hours ⇒ 343 milliseconds
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Infamous Systems

Lessons To Be Learned

if something can go wrong, it will go wrong

argument “it works now” has little value for a real time
system
testing can find many errors, but never gives full
correctness guarantees
correctness should be ideally established by a formal
verification with clearly stated assumptions and assertions

Therefore this course gives focus on formal treatment and

verification.
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Objectives of the Course

After the course students should:

Know specific aspects of real time systems.
Understand main problems of the design of real time
systems and know some solutions.
Be able to use formal reasoning about real time systems.
Have a practical experience with a real time system.
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Topics

scheduling
programming
verification

recurring (connecting) theme: mutual exclusion

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Scheduling

Scheduling

input:
available processors, resources
set of tasks (requirements, deadlines, dependencies ...)
question: how to assign processor/resources to tasks so
that all requirements are met?
example:
1 processor, jobs are preemptable
job 1: release time 0, computation time 1, deadline 2
job 2: release time 0, computation time 2, deadline 5
job 3: release time 2, computation time 2, deadline 4
job 4: release time 3, computation time 2, deadline 10
job 5: release time 6, computation time 2, deadline 9
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Scheduling

Periodicity, Priorities
periodic jobs, periodic schedules
priorities of job (different levels of criticality)
priority inversion problem, solutions, ...
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Scheduling

Resource Access Control

scheduling with resources

ensuring exclusive access to resources — mutual exclusion
problem
protocols for mutual exclusion, semaphores, ...
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Programming

Programming

concurrency
general concepts
overview of programming languages (C + POSIX, Java,
Ada)
programming exercise with C + POSIX
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Programming

Lego Mindstorms Project

construction and programming of a physical real time system

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Verification

Verification

introduction to formal verification

model checking technique
basic idea, formal modeling, algorithms
timed automata formalism
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Verification

Uppaal

model checking tool for real time systems

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Verification

Verification Case Studies

Example: Bounded Retransmission Protocol

Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Puzzles

puzzles illustrating some of the main concepts:

scheduling
deadlines
shared resources, constraints
concurrency
prove of infeasibility
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Toasts Puzzle

toast: each side 2 minutes on a pan

pan: two toasts at a time
what is the minimum time to make three toasts?
draw a diagram of an optimal “schedule”
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Toasts Puzzle II

toast both side, one side has to be buttered (after

toasting that side)
time requirements:
putting toast on/out/turning: 3 s
toasting one side: 30 s
buttering: 12 s
what is the minimum time to make three toasts ?
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Bridge Puzzle

4 men, river, bridge, night, 1 flashlight

at most 2 men on a bridge, flashlight necessary
flashlight cannot be thrown
wounded men – different time to cross: 5 min, 10 min, 20
min, 25 min
can they cross in 60 minutes?
can they cross is less than 60 minutes?
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Toasts, Bridge – Concepts

real time: time to make a toast, time to cross a bridge

deadline: time to complete the task
schedule: that’s the objective to find
shared resource (constraint): pan, flashlight
finding solution – intuition may be sufficient (for a simple
puzzle)
proving optimality (infeasibility of better solution) –
formalization necessary, tool support welcomed
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Measuring Time

you have 7 minute and 11 minute hourglasses

how do you measure 15 minutes? (there are multiple
different solutions)
generalization: a minute and b minute hourglasses,
measuring time c
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Gossiping Girl Problem

each girl knows a distinct secret

girls can talk through phone, during call they exchange all
secrets, call takes 1 minute
communication only in pairs, but calls can be concurrent
objective: all girls know all secrets
what is the minimum time to reach the objective (for n
girls)
extension: time dependent on the number of secrets
exchanged
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Dining Philosophers

think → take left fork → take right

fork → eat → drop left fork → drop
right fork → think → ...
possible deadlock
how to avoid deadlock?
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Concurrent Addition Puzzle

c := 1, x1 := 0, x2 := 0

x1 := c x2 := c
x1 := x1 + c k x2 := x2 + c
c := x1 c := x2

both processes loop

arbitrary interleaving
How can c reach value 5? How can c reach value 13?
Can c reach any natural value?
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Gossip, Philosophers, Addition – Concepts

concurrency: several “processes” active in parallel

shared resources: phones, forks, shared variable c
interleavings: source of complexity
Introduction Examples Overview of the Course

Puzzles

Summary

course: 4 assignments, active participation quite

important
today: real time system properties – illustrated on sample
examples, puzzles
next: abstract model of real time system, scheduling