Industrial and real-time applications on multi/many-core heterogeneous devices

The OPEN-NEXT project is the result of a joint initiative of T3LAB, University of Bologna, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and INFN for the development of new software solutions for real-time systems on multi / many-core architectures.

The meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 30 at CRIT aims to present the skills of the laboratories involved and the objectives of the project that will be articulated on:

• Programming models for multi / many-core heterogeneous architectures with real-time constraints.
• Complex stack of operating systems to support real-time applications on multi / many-core heterogeneous architectures.
• Tools for the build and configuration of complex stacks of operating systems and for the schedulability analysis of the SW modules of a real-time application.

Abstract

The advent of heterogeneous multi / many-core platforms opens up enormous opportunities in the field of embedded systems. The integration of several computing units operating at lower frequencies allows a significant increase in performance at a reduced cost and with lower energy consumption. At the same time, new industrial applications are appearing on the embedded systems market that impose requirements that are difficult to satisfy with existing technology:

• higher computational loads, for rapid processing and fusion of multiple sensory data;
• reduced energy consumption, to allow the use of smaller batteries associated with renewable energy sources;
• faster and more reliable interaction with the surrounding environment, with a capacity to react in predictable times;
• greater criticality, with systems that participate in safety-critical activities also in close interaction with man: in these systems it is not permissible to aim for high average performances without guarantees on constant compliance with the constraints on response time.

The need for new computational architectures that can provide high performance in a predictable manner on new-generation embedded platforms, real embedded super-computers that require complex operating system stacks to be used optimally, therefore emerges.

OPEN-NEXT intends to develop a SW platform that allows the execution of new generation industrial and real-time applications on multi / many-core heterogeneous devices.

OPEN-NEXT Partner

T3LAB offers consulting services for research and development to companies in Emilia Romagna. T3LAB has experience of kernel-space development on Unix-like systems, in particular on Linux and on different HW platforms, also heterogeneous.

CIRI-ICT is the Interdepartmental Center for Industrial Research of the University of Bologna for information and communication technologies. CIRI-ICT has several years of experience in heterogeneous multi / many-core architectures on which it has developed run-time libraries.

Softech-ICT is an Interdepartmental Research Center for ICT for Companies promoted by the Engineering Department “Enzo Ferrari” and by the Department of Economics “Marco Biagi” of UNIMORE. Softech-ICT has experience in scheduling analysis on multi-core systems.

INFN TTLab is the Technological Transfer Laboratory of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Emilia Romagna. INFN has porting skills on low-power architectures.

CRIT is a company specialized in the research and analysis of technical and scientific information and in research project development activities.