Application specific real-time microkernel in hardware

Real-time operating system kernels in embedded systems need to be configurable. Unfortunately many of today's commercial real-time kernels are monolithic. These optimized code packages are difficult to change and maintain. This is motivated mainly to achieve short response time and easy access of debugging information. To solve the drawbacks of the monolithic real-time kernels, the microkernel structure was introduced. The microkernel approach has been discussed for having disadvantages regarding performance. We have implemented a prototype that shows how a modular microkernel architecture in hardware can be used to speed up task management, semaphores and flags for a commercial real-time kernel. The implementation shows both the adaptability of the hardware kernel and the performance speed up associated with hardware implementations. This article demonstrates that a hardware based real-time kernel can keep or increase the performance of a monolithic structured real-time operating system, while improving system modularity.