Re: occam and RT kernels

["J.Moores" <jm40@xxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding all the talk about using occam on real time kernels; I'm
currently developing a semi-portable C based occam kernel.  It should
will be included with the Linux release of KRoC (real soon now) but can
also be used from C using a library currently based on the Inmos C API.

The main problem I can see with running occam on conventional RTOS's is
that ALT and timer handling code makes up the bulk of my kernel, and so
this work would have to be done anyway.  Combine this with the fact that
the really fast context switches we see in occam are partly due to
descheduling being compiler determined, you can get away with saving very
little context.  I have also found a way to do the same in GCC (it knows
that calls into the kernel will corrupt all the registers).

Perhaps a more dynamic language (based heavily on occam) could use a
kernel like this, possibly using C with my C library as intermediate code?
But who's going to write the compiler?

Jim Moores
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Jim Moores, PhD Research Student, Computing Lab, University of Kent, UK.