Abstract
We have designed a Real-Time Co-Operating System (RTCOS) for simultaneously supporting real-time and non-real-time activities on a workstation with two or more processors. The RTCOS is the software equivalent of a co-processor, with a software architecture analogous to the hardware architecture that has been used in many workstations and personal computers. In this paper, we discuss our first software prototype of the RTCOS, which co-exists with Solaris 2.4 on a four-processor Sun SPARCstation 20. We summarize the feasibility of our approach through an experi mental characterization of Solaris 2.4. We address the technical issues involved and present the details of our design. The RTCOS is targeted towards real-time applications in the sensor-based control, process control, signal processing, multimedia, and manufacturing domains.