FSMLabs says its real-time Linux operating system now supports ARINC 653 scheduling, which it describes as a “fully protected and partitioned scheduling environment” targeting avionics control and hardware-in-loop simulation. ARINC 653 support is available through an add-on component for the company’s RTLinuxPro development kit.
ARINC 653 scheduling is most often used in aerospace applications, in conjunction with DO-178B OSes, such as those available from LynuxWorks, Green Hill Software, and Wind River. Since Linux is not developed according to DO-178B requirements, FSMLabs likely intends for its ARINC 653 capabilities to be used primarily in simulation applications.
FSMLabs says it added ARINC scheduling to its Process Space Development Domain (PSDD) product, which executes real-time threads in the address space of Linux or BSD processes. Claimed features and benefits include:
* ARINC 653 partitions use RTCore’s POSIX standard API
o threads, semaphores, shared memory, and other standard interfaces
* Applications may be written in C, C++, and FORTRAN, with ADA support planned
* A single device can run ARINC partitions alongside standard RTCore threads, Linux, and Linux applications
Additionally, FSMLabs says that multi-processor systems can run multiple ARINC “cabinets,” and may optionally use the company’s “processor reservation” technology, for added real-time performance. Sans processor reservation, RTLinux’s ARINC 653 scheduling provides “low microsecond hard real-time execution,” the company claims.
Lockheed-Martin’s principal real-time specialist, Richard Bond, stated, “RTLinuxPro and PSDD enabled a simple simulation framework, allowed me the choice to develop user-level I/O drivers, and provided outstanding performance. ARINC 653 support will make this tool even more useful.”
Dean Anneser, a software engineering fellow at Pratt & Whitney, stated, “PSDD provides a very stable cost effective scalable multi-platform solution for our simulation, control, and data acquisition systems.”
Availability
ARINC 653 support is available now for x86, PowerPC, 64/32-bit, uniprocessors, SMP, and multi-core, as an optional component of FSMLabs’s RTLinuxPro development kit. Other options include an Eclipse based IDE, a complete Carrier Grade Linux distribution, VME direct drive, and real-time networking.
