FASTHARD - A Fast Time Deterministic HARDware Based Real-time Kernel

Real-time systems handle increasing complexities of functions and require better determinism and higher speed. One way to make it easier to meet those requirements is to implement the real-time kernel in a separate unit working concurrently with the CPU, called RTU (Real-Time Unit). This paper describes an RTU we call FASTHARD as a model in VHDL (hardware description language). It is planned to be implemented in a special hardware architecture. All standard CPU’s can be used together with FASTHARD. FASTHARD can handle rendezvous, interrupts, periodic start of tasks, delay tasks and activate/terminate tasks without any contact with the CPU.