Predictable Automatic Memory Management for Embedded Systems

The power of dynamic memory management can be used to produce more flexible control applications without compromising the robustness of the applications. It is demonstrated how automatic memory management, or garbage collection (GC), can be used in a system that has to comply with hard real-time demands while still preserving the predictability of the system. A suitable garbage collection algorithm is described together with a strategy for scheduling the work of the algorithm. A method for proving that a given set of processes will always meet their deadlines without interference from the garbage collector is given. 1 Introduction Traditionally, embedded real-time systems have been implemented using static techniques to ensure predictability. Static task scheduling has been used together with static memory management. The demand for more flexible applications together with improved implementation and analysis techniques have brought an increased use of dynamic process scheduling. Howe..