An Esterel processor with full preemption support and its worst case reaction time analysis

The concurrent synchronous language Esterel allows proto treat reactive systems in an abstract, concise manner. An Esterel program is typically first translated into other, non-synchronous high-level languages, such as VHDL or C, and then compiled further into hardware or software. Another approach that has been proposed recently is the direct execution of Esterel-like instructions with a customized processor, which promises the flexibility of a software solution with an efficiency close to a hardware implementation. However, the instruction sets and implementations of the processor architectures proposed so far still have some limitations regarding their completeness, efficiency, and adherence to the original Esterel semantics. This paper presents a novel reactive processor architecture, the Kiel Esterel Processor, which addresses these shortcomings. In particular, it provides a complete, semantically accurate implementation of the Esterel preemption primitives, most of which can b...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CASES
• Authors: Xin Li, Jan Lukoschus, Marian Boldt, Michael Harder, Reinhard von Hanxleden
• Keywords: CASES 2005, Esterel, Kiel Esterel Processor, Processor Architectures, System Software