Design and implementation of a hardware-software module for testing real-time systems

This paper describes the results of a specialized hardware and software module development. This module is created for testing real-time operating systems (RTOS) using the method of response. Successful execution of any program in RTOS depends not only on correctness of its algorithm, but also on the response time — time until a result is received. Accordingly, any software developed for such systems should be tested with the following objectives: to confirm that the time of a RTOS reaction to external influences satisfies the requirement of predictable time; to demonstrate existence of some errors that with a high degree of accuracy can lead to the system failure or existence of conditions preventing further system usage. The designed hardware-software module is based on the Freescale HCS12 microcontroller and provides empirical data for the properties of the system in different states. This is achieved by applying the method of response, which means registering the time of a system reaction to an event generated by the testing module. The module contains a set of tests for: identifying patterns of response time variations for a system under different degrees of stress; analyzing storage devices access time; analyzing time of system response to asynchronous events. The implemented test procedure makes it possible to build a sufficient picture of a RTOS and its applications properties on the basis of experimental results.