RTOS scheduler implementation in hardware and software for real time applications

In order to enhance performance and improve predictability of the real time systems, implementing some critical operating system functionalities, like time management and task scheduling, in software and others in hardware is an interesting approach. Scheduling decision for real-time embedded software applications is an important problem in real-time operating system (RTOS) and has a great impact on system performance. In this paper, we evaluate the pros and cons of migrating RTOS scheduler implementation from software to hardware. We investigate three different RTOS scheduler implementation approaches: (i) implemented in software running in the same processor of the application tasks, (ii) implemented in software running in a co-processor, and (iii) implemented in hardware, while application tasks are running on a processor. We demonstrate the effectiveness of each approach by simulating and analyzing a set of benchmarks representing different embedded application classes.