Homare: Platform Software for Aggregating Embedded Systems on Multi-core Processor

Large-scale embedded systems are increasing in performance and multifunctionality, so the increase in the number of hardware causes problems such as weight increase and internal space compression. In addition, while multi-core processors are becoming popular in embedded devices, existing embedded software does not take full advantage of them. To solve these problems, we propose a method to aggregate multiple existing embedded software into a single hardware with multi-core processors. Virtualization technology is generally used when aggregating multiple software, but it is difficult to guarantee real-time performance and porting cost for aggregation with existing technology. Therefore, we develop Homare as a platform software that enables the aggregation of embedded software with an emphasis on real-time performance and portability. In this paper, we describe the requirements for aggregating embedded systems in Homare and how to configure the aggregation platform software to ensure the requirements. In addition, to show that aggregation is possible, we actually port some embedded software and discuss its real-time performance and portability. The evaluation results show that the overhead caused by the aggregation is approximately 32 μs at the maximum, and the modification of embedded software required for porting is about ten parts.