An applicability evaluation of the Mips R3000 and Intel 80960MC processors for real-time embedded systems

The Mips R3000 and Intel 80960MC are two candidate processors for use in real-time embedded architectures. The architectural features and development environment for each of these processors are described. The requirements of real-time embedded processors are discussed and related to the functions performed. Software statistics are presented for various real-time embedded applications; attention is given to typical procedure call depths, context switching, interprocess communication and synchronization, transcendental functions, parameter passing, and local and global object declarations. These computational requirements are related to the architecture features, contrasting the effects of different major design issues such as register set architecture, cache size and management, multiprocess support, exception/fault handling, debug support, virtual memory system, interrupt controller, branch handling, and functional pipelining. Trade-offs that compare the hardware to software impact relative to the real-time system requirements are identified