A C language extension for programming real-time applications

One of the most diffused approaches in programming real-time applications is using the C language supported by suited operating system calls. Due to the differences in the real-time operating systems, the source code produced using this approach cannot easily be ported to other platforms. Moreover since the concurrent structure and the real-time constraints of the application are dispersed among the parameters of the system calls, program maintenance and upgrades end up being complex and costly activities. We propose a small set of extensions for the C language arising from our experience in programming real-time applications. Constructs for expressing tasks, shared resources, communication channels, interrupt handling, and real-time constraints are provided. The primary goal of the proposed language extensions is to enhance the programs concurrent and real-time structure and increase the number of static checks on source code, while retaining most of the C language flexibility.