Response Time Analysis on Multicore ECUs With Shared Resources

Abstract

As multiprocessor systems are increasingly used in automotive real-time environments, scheduling and synchronization analysis of these platforms receive growing attention. Upcoming multicore ECUs allow the integration of previously separated functionality for body electronics or sensor fusion onto a single unit, and allow the parallelization of complex computations over multiple cores. The application of multiple CPUs turns an ECU into a highly integrated ldquonetworked systemrdquo microcosm, in which complex interdependencies can be observed due to the use of shared resources even in partitioned scheduling. To deliver predictable performance, resource arbitration protocols are required and have been proposed in literature. This paper presents an novel analytical approach to provide the worst-case response time for real-time tasks in multiprocessor systems with shared resources. The method supports realistic, event- or time-driven task activation schemes and allows to calculate tight bounds on the estimated system performance.