Design of a time-predictable multicore processor: The T-CREST project

Real-time systems need to deliver results in time and often this timely production of a result needs to be guaranteed. Static timing analysis can be used to bound the worst-case execution time of tasks. However, this timing analysis is only possible if the processor architecture is analysis friendly. This paper presents the T-CREST processor, a real-time multicore processor developed to be time-predictable and an easy target for static worst-case execution time analysis. We present how to achieve time-predictability at all levels of the architecture, from the processor pipeline, via a network-on-chip, up to the memory controller. The main architectural feature to provide time predictability is to use static arbitration of shared resources in a time-division multiplexing way.