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DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2025.1

Programming Time-Predictable Processors with Lingua Franca

Authors: Magnus Mæhlum, Erling Rennemo Jellum, Shaokai Lin, Marten Lohstroh, Martin Schoeberl, Sverre Hendseth, and Edward A. Lee

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 128, Sixth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2025)

Abstract

Precision-timed (PRET) machines are an alternative to modern processors that provide precise control over the timing of software execution. This paper describes a platform for developing predictable real-time embedded systems that pair PRET machines with Lingua Franca (LF), a recent reactor-based coordination language with temporal semantics. Specifically, we port LF to FlexPRET, a PRET machine with flexible hardware thread scheduling. We evaluate single-threaded LF with a tight control loop style application on four embedded platforms, including the FlexPRET. The results reveal the underlying platform’s timing variability and how LF plus FlexPRET can remedy this timing variability. Finally, we compare single-threaded to multithreaded LF, again concerning timing. The four embedded platforms used are FlexPRET (bare-metal), RP2040 (bare-metal), nRF52 (with Zephyr), and Raspberry Pi 3b+ (with Linux). Our results indicate that FlexPRET with LF is attractive when precise timing is essential.

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Magnus Mæhlum, Erling Rennemo Jellum, Shaokai Lin, Marten Lohstroh, Martin Schoeberl, Sverre Hendseth, and Edward A. Lee. Programming Time-Predictable Processors with Lingua Franca. In Sixth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 128, pp. 1:1-1:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{maehlum_et_al:OASIcs.NG-RES.2025.1,
  author =	{M{\ae}hlum, Magnus and Jellum, Erling Rennemo and Lin, Shaokai and Lohstroh, Marten and Schoeberl, Martin and Hendseth, Sverre and Lee, Edward A.},
  title =	{{Programming Time-Predictable Processors with Lingua Franca}},
  booktitle =	{Sixth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2025)},
  pages =	{1:1--1:13},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-366-9},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{128},
  editor =	{Yomsi, Patrick Meumeu and Wildermann, Stefan},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2025.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-229876},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2025.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: Real-time systems, time-predictable architecture, embedded system, coordination language}
}

Document

DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2023.3

Beyond the Threaded Programming Model on Real-Time Operating Systems

Authors: Erling Rennemo Jellum, Shaokai Lin, Peter Donovan, Efsane Soyer, Fuzail Shakir, Torleiv Bryne, Milica Orlandic, Marten Lohstroh, and Edward A. Lee

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 108, Fourth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2023)

Abstract

The use of a real-time operating system (RTOS) raises the abstraction level for embedded systems design when compared to traditional bare-metal programming, resulting in simpler and more reusable application code. Modern RTOSes for resource-constrained platforms, like Zephyr and FreeRTOS, also offer threading support, but this kind of shared memory concurrency is a poor fit for expressing the reactive and interactive behaviors that are common in embedded systems. To address this, alternative concurrency models like the actor model or communicating sequential processes have been proposed. While those alternatives enable reactive design patterns, they fail to deliver determinism and do not address timing. This makes it difficult to verify that implemented behavior is as intended and impossible to specify timing constraints in a portable way. This makes it hard to create reusable library components out of common embedded design patterns, forcing developers to keep reinventing the wheel for each application and each platform. In this paper, we introduce the embedded target of Lingua Franca (LF) as a means to move beyond the threaded programming model provided by RTOSes and improve the state of the art in embedded programming. LF is based on the reactor model of computation, which is reactive, deterministic, and timed, providing a means to express concurrency and timing in a platform-independent way. We compare the performance of LF versus threaded C code - both running on Zephyr - in terms of response time, timing precision, throughput, and memory footprint.

Cite as

Erling Rennemo Jellum, Shaokai Lin, Peter Donovan, Efsane Soyer, Fuzail Shakir, Torleiv Bryne, Milica Orlandic, Marten Lohstroh, and Edward A. Lee. Beyond the Threaded Programming Model on Real-Time Operating Systems. In Fourth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2023). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 108, pp. 3:1-3:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2023)

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@InProceedings{jellum_et_al:OASIcs.NG-RES.2023.3,
  author =	{Jellum, Erling Rennemo and Lin, Shaokai and Donovan, Peter and Soyer, Efsane and Shakir, Fuzail and Bryne, Torleiv and Orlandic, Milica and Lohstroh, Marten and Lee, Edward A.},
  title =	{{Beyond the Threaded Programming Model on Real-Time Operating Systems}},
  booktitle =	{Fourth Workshop on Next Generation Real-Time Embedded Systems (NG-RES 2023)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:13},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-268-6},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2023},
  volume =	{108},
  editor =	{Terraneo, Federico and Cattaneo, Daniele},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2023.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-177348},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NG-RES.2023.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: Real time, concurrency, reactors, Lingua Franca, RTOS}
}

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Documents authored by Jellum, Erling Rennemo

Programming Time-Predictable Processors with Lingua Franca

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Beyond the Threaded Programming Model on Real-Time Operating Systems

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