The Real-Time Network Architecture (RTNA) is characterised by structural forms in which independently operating concurrent functions interact through explicitly identified connectors. RTNA has proved to be highly successful in the development of multi-tasking multi-processing embedded real-time systems. This talk will focus particularly on hardware micro-kernel techniques which can be used to support the interaction and scheduling concepts implicit in RTNA. A notation is introduced to express the functionality of the micro-kernel and it is shown how this translates into clock-free gate-level electronic designs. Although RTNA originates in the real-time distributed systems field, it is directly applicable to any development problem in which efficient computing resource utilisation and low electrical power consumption are primary concerns.
published on: 24th July 2010