One of my customer is considering to use Cortex A9 dual core device for a computational intensive task (For the sake of discussion, lets assume an high end
image analysis task). Due to cost or other over head reasons, he/she does not prefer to use an RTOS instead the customer intend to use some APIs
provided by the device vendor to access the essential h/w blocks and peripherals of the device. This is a sort of AMP system in the sense that some core tasks
are "hard glued" to specific CA9 cores to take full advantage of the CA9 dual core architecture. I understand that using a light weight multi core supported RTOS will be
the elegant approach. But, if the end user/customer wants to go with a non-OS approach, what are the benefits and pains he/she is going to experience in this project?
Inter-core communication without an RTOS going to be a painful experience for them .. Any other thing you can share with me on this?
Cheers,
Senthil
It would be conventional to use an RTOS [or OS of some kind] on each core of an AMP system. It is not essential to do so, but, apart from the device driver issue, it can make life easier in 2 ways. First, it makes the software more scalable, so future enhancements are easier to implement. Second, the implementation of inter-core communication is simpler with an OS. Having said this, your customer might consider using MCAPI, which can also be implemented without an OS [look at openmcapi.org].
Thanks Collins for the link to the excellent resource source. I am looking into it..
Senthil,
PolyCore Software has tools and runtime software for multicore applications, called Poly-Platform. The tools are integrated with DS5, providing a seamless development environment which will manage the resources and communications. Embedded applications span a broad range of topologies which include SMP and AMP(ISA and OS).
At your request, I would be happy to explore how Poly-Platform could work in your environment. Feel free to email at Ted.Gribb@PolyCoreSoftware.com
See www.PolyCoreSoftware.com
Thanks for the additional information. Your solution looks interesting.
Let me go through your white papers and come back to you if I need further information or help from you.
But, people usually hesitate to look into any commercial platforms due to the inherent royalty cost...
Regards,
Thank you for reviewing Poly-Platform. Commercial platforms and IP offer significant benefits. Many successful programs are using commercial development tools and IP.
Best Regards,
Ted