Developing Hard-Real Time, Embedded Systems

Kim Fowler

November 13, 2010

Hard real-time, embedded systems are pervasive and touch every part of our lives. Typically, they are subsystems buried deep within a larger device, instrument, or vehicle and not immediately obvious to the user. In spite of their invisibility, people still expect those subsystems to function correctly – whether they are microwave ovens or automobiles or aircraft with 100s of microcontrollers and a variety of different embedded subsystems.

Hard real-time systems must meet processing deadlines and must be dependable. Most hard real-time systems are in mission-critical or safety-critical applications that require rigorous development in design, test, integration, and technical support.

The lecture will cover the following topics:

   1.  Architectures for hard-real time systems

   2.  Developing Mission-Critical and Safety-Critical systems

   3.  Practical tools for engineering tradeoff analysis: FMECA, FTA, ETA, root cause analysis

   4.  Case studies in developing a product

The focus will be on smaller, single applications, such as an appliance or device or vehicle. The lecture will not address massively distributed or cloud computing applications.

Biography

Kim has spent nearly 30 years in the design, development, and project management of medical, military, and satellite equipment. He co-founded Stimsoft, a medical products company, in 1998 and sold it in 2003, and has worked for JHU/APL and Ixthos. Kim currently consults in technical development for both commercial companies and government agencies; his focus is on engineering processes in designing and developing products and systems.

Kim is the President of the IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement Society for 2010 and 2011. He spent 9 years as Editor-In-Chief of the award-winning IEEE Instrumentation & Measurement magazine. Kim is an adjunct professor for the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Professional Program and lectures internationally on systems engineering and developing real-time embedded systems. Kim has written 7 textbooks and published over 50 articles in engineering journals. He has 17 patents - granted, pending, or disclosed.

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