White Papers
RTOS 101
RTOS 101 explains fundamental RTOS concepts, such as tasks, priority-based scheduling, queues, semaphores and mutexes, and provides examples of how Tracealyzer can be used to understand such issues.
Stop Guessing
Stop Guessing – Trace Visualization for RTOS Firmware Debugging explains key motivations of using an RTOS, current trends in this area, and common pitfalls in RTOS-based development (including an example from NASA).
RTOS Debugging Blog Series
#1: Dealing with timing issues
There is a learning curve when you begin using a real-time operating system in your development. You will work at a higher abstraction level, using parallel tasks that interact with each other, and you will deal with timing issues.
#2: CPU starvation
In embedded systems using multitasking, you may run into a situation where some of your tasks run slowly or not at all. This is called task starvation and it can happen for a number of reasons.
#3: Chasing the jitter bug
When you have a task in your system that is supposed to execute at regular intervals, say every 5 milliseconds, then you have a system that is sensitive to random delays – also known as “jitter”.
#4: Priority inversion
In embedded systems using multitasking, you may run into a situation where some of your tasks run slowly or not at all. This is called task starvation and it can happen for a number of reasons.
#5: Deadlock
A clear indication that you may have a deadlock problem is when multiple tasks suddenly stop executing, although no higher priority tasks are running.