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A real-time Java virtual machine with applications in avionics

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Jan VitekAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), Volume 7, Issue 1

Article No.: 5, Pages 1 - 49

https://doi.org/10.1145/1324969.1324974

Published: 12 December 2007 Publication History

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Abstract

This paper reports on our experience with the implementation of the Real-time Specification for Java on the Ovm open source Java virtual machine. We describe the architecture and main design decisions involved in implementing real-time Java on Ovm. We present the first use of Real-time Java in avionics in the context of control software for a ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

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Cited By

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Prat ATorens CCarrick BAdolf FGiljohann FLüdtke D(2024)Trade Study of Scripting Languages for Avionics Systems2024 AIAA DATC/IEEE 43rd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)10.1109/DASC62030.2024.10748678(01-09)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1109/DASC62030.2024.10748678
Kozak DJovanovic VStancu CVojnar TWimmer CBruno RMoss E(2023)Comparing Rapid Type Analysis with Points-To Analysis in GraalVM Native ImageProceedings of the 20th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Managed Programming Languages and Runtimes10.1145/3617651.3622980(129-142)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3617651.3622980
Zaeske WFriedrich SSchubert TDurak U(2023)WebAssembly in Avionics : Decoupling Software from Hardware2023 IEEE/AIAA 42nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)10.1109/DASC58513.2023.10311207(1-10)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
https://doi.org/10.1109/DASC58513.2023.10311207
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Index Terms

A real-time Java virtual machine with applications in avionics
1. Computer systems organization
  1. Embedded and cyber-physical systems
    1. Embedded systems
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Compilers
      1. Interpreters
      2. Runtime environments
    2. General programming languages
      1. Language features
        Classes and objects
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Software system structures
      1. Embedded software
      2. Real-time systems software

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Reviews

Reviewer: Wolfgang Schreiner

The virtues of the Java language for writing reliable and portable code have also raised the desire to use it for the programming of embedded systems with real-time constraints. Such applications are supported by the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ), for which various (mostly commercial) implementations have been developed. This paper discloses an implementation of RTSJ on top of the open-source Java Virtual Machine Ovm, which was created at Purdue University in order to run the control software PRiSMj of the unmanned aerial vehicle ScanEagle, developed by Boeing. The resulting software passed Boeing's qualification tests and was successfully applied in test flights; it received the Java 2005 Duke's Choice award. The authors give very interesting, clear, and detailed insight into the architecture of Ovm, the basic development strategy (based on the ahead-of-time translation of Java programs to C++ code and the management of threads in user space), as well as the challenges that had to be met with respect to thread scheduling, memory management, synchronization, and input/output (I/O). The most complex issue was the implementation of the RTSJ memory model, which involves "scoped areas" to overcome the unpredictability of garbage collection of the standard heap. Performance benchmarks demonstrate the efficiency of the system; finally, its deployment in ScanEagle and the lessons learned from the project are described. The paper is wholeheartedly recommended to anyone interested in learning about the current state of the art in Java technology for developing real-time software for large-scale embedded systems. Online Computing Reviews Service

Reviewer: Michael Zastre

A hoary falsehood about Java is that it is unsuitable for hard real-time applications, due to the need for garbage collection (GC). The Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ) that is now eight years old should have put this to rest, yet the falsehood still circulates in many circles. For this reason, the paper should be required reading for anyone who is interested in or involved in teaching real-time systems, especially to those interested in understanding RTSJ and what an implementation really looks like. This paper actually comprises two papers, one sandwiching the other. The outer portion consists of Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7. It describes details of what appears to be the first use of an RTSJ implementation in an avionics application?the Boeing ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle. This accomplishment is very real and not just the result of simulated workloads; that is, it controlled an unmanned aerial vehicle in a capstone demonstration at White Sands in December 2004. The inner portion consists of a very large Section 3 and a smaller Section 4. Section 3 starts with a description of the out-of-order execution parallel virtual machine (OVM), an open-source framework for experimenting with Java VM implementations. Components needed for an RTSJ implementation were written for this framework and the design decisions, along with implications of those decisions, are described throughout. Subsections 3.6 to 3.9 are particularly valuable for those interested in what synchronization and memory management (where GC and non-GC memory areas are coresident) look like in real-time Java. Section 4 provides performance data on throughput, scheduling latency, and avionics benchmarks. There is much else of interest in the paper: the use of Java to implement a Java Virtual Machine, hardware for the ground and capstone tests, and the implementation of POSIX asynchronous input/output (I/O). It makes for a rewarding read. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems

ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems Volume 7, Issue 1

December 2007

234 pages

ISSN:1539-9087

EISSN:1558-3465

DOI:10.1145/1324969

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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ACM Journals for the Design of Smart and Connected Systems

Publication History

Published: 12 December 2007

Accepted: 01 July 2007

Revised: 01 April 2006

Received: 01 February 2006

Published in TECS Volume 7, Issue 1

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https://doi.org/10.1109/DASC62030.2024.10748678
Kozak DJovanovic VStancu CVojnar TWimmer CBruno RMoss E(2023)Comparing Rapid Type Analysis with Points-To Analysis in GraalVM Native ImageProceedings of the 20th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Managed Programming Languages and Runtimes10.1145/3617651.3622980(129-142)Online publication date: 19-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3617651.3622980
Zaeske WFriedrich SSchubert TDurak U(2023)WebAssembly in Avionics : Decoupling Software from Hardware2023 IEEE/AIAA 42nd Digital Avionics Systems Conference (DASC)10.1109/DASC58513.2023.10311207(1-10)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
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Reviews

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