Modular kernel for small micro-controllers

• Main Authors: Stemmer, R., Witkowski, U.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• DOI: 10.1109/EDERC.2012.6532226

Current micro-controllers from TI offer relatively high processing power, moderate amount of volatile and non-volatile memory and several interfaces. Depending on an application the software for the micro-controller is developed and optimized once. This is a typical type of use for embedded systems. Our approach is to develop a modular kernel that can be used on small micro-controllers and not only on powerful processor systems. Main advantage of this approach is that the kernel can be small in terms of memory requirements for simple applications. But it also can be easily extended by additional modules for more complex applications. Following this approach allows to efficiently develop applications that are optimized for a specific task and in parallel save resources of the micro-controller system. Modules that are developed as relocatable binary files are stored in a library for usage on demand. An API running on a PC allows to select required modules and to transmit these modules into the micro-controller's memory. The access to the modules is realized via function pointers.