Going MultiCore for Embedded Software

Problem statement

In the embedded system world the rise of multiprocessor platforms is uncounterable. As such, the law of Moore is replaced by the law of Amdahl.
Traditionally performance was continuously improved, among others, by increasing the processor speed. Nowadays the limit of this technique has been reached. Using multiple processors can reduce exection time, increase processing capacity, as well as reducing energy consumption. Parallelization has become a necessity.
However writing efficient and safe parallel software is hard. In order to effectively increase efficiency of applications, the software must be adjusted to exploit parallelism. In embedded systems this is not an easy task, as custom hardware is added to the multiprocessor platforms and support for parallel software is currently lacking.

Collaboration between EP and TERA-Labs

The “Enterprise Programming research group” of KHBO and “TERA-Labs” of KdG join forces for this TETRA project. Both research groups focus their research activities on the development and optimization of embedded software. EP and TERA-Labs each have their own area of expertise, development process and implemenation level, respectively.
The collaboration of EP and TERA-Labs allows to combine the in-house knowledge and further extend the expertise concerning, design patterns, testability and robustness of embedded multicore platforms.

Project objectives

Research in this TETRA project will focus on how the general problems can be tackled with state-of-the-art design techniques and tools. These experiences will be translated to practical knowledge and directly deployable techniques for our industrial partners. EP will focus on design patterns and testability, while TERA-Labs will pay attention to the implementation and the impact of the hardware architecture. By extensive internal communcation we will exchange knowledge on a continuous basis;
After exploring the state of the art in both the academic and industrial world, we will develop a couple of academic proof of concept applications to explore the design space for embedded multicore software. The lessons learned of this phase will be evaluated in cooperation with the user group. To assess the industrial applicability of our experiences, one or more complex applications are developed. The best practices of this phase as well as all the results of the previous phases, will be accesible on a common CMS. Finally to further valorize the results, a workshop and seminar will be organized.