On interface design for distributed signal processing

Manufacturers of real-time operating systems (RTOS) for DSP computers and multi-computers are mainly concerned on kernel size and performance. These RTOS rely on configuration tools that statically locate the application tasks across the available machines. This work describes IDSP, a distributed middle-ware for DSP multi-computers. It is not a new RTOS, but a framework upon one of them, currently Texas Instruments DSP/BIOS. IDSP proposes and researches process management and MPI-like message passing interfaces that make possible run-time creation of remote tasks and true location-transparent communication, These facilities are not yet present in commercial systems, but a they are a must for achieving more advanced capabilities such as process migration and fault tolerance. We describe the design of IDSP and give performance figures.