Towards a fixed priority scheduler for an aircraft application

This paper describes process improvement work that has been performed in the Rolls-Royce Systems and Software Engineering University Technology Centre based at York University. The domain of interest is hard real-time safety critical systems certified to the avionics equipment standard D0178B. The use of fixed priority scheduling as a mechanism for controlling the run-time behaviour of software has been investigated, and has been shown to lead to a more efficient and effective system, at lower cost and lower risk.