TUTORIAL 1 REAL ISSUES FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS Instructor: Kim Fowler Wednesday, 22 May 2002, 8.00AM-12.00AM This tutorial will help you understand the real issues and the big picture in designing real-time embedded systems. It will provide the general principles used in design and development and illustrate them with case studies and examples. The topics are: 1. Systems Engineering - Process, architecting, and engineering judgment 2. Documentation 3. The Human Interface - User-centered design, elements of successful interfaces 4. Packaging - Its influence, environmental issues, wiring and assembly issues 5. Grounding and Shielding - Principles and general rules for design 6. Circuit Design - Principles for selecting and applying technology 7. Power - Types of converters, distribution, and line conditioning and filtering 8. Cooling - Mechanisms, types of heat transfer, and tradeoffs 9. Software - Good programming practices, process, real-time issues, and limitations 10. Review and Testing - Debugging, inspections, integration, validation, verification 11. Production, Procurement, Maintenance, and Disposal 12. Tradeoffs, Problems, Failures, and Integrity Do we build or do we buy? The choice is between custom development and purchasing. What happens when something fails? How do we handle it? The case studies include: Comet - the first jet-engine airliner that tested the limits of human knowledge Therac-25 - a development nightmare in system design Chernobyl - a study in human expertise, experience, and arrogance Apple Lisa - great ideas before their time, a marketing miscue Sidewinder missile - innovative development practices that led to a system that is still useful 50 years later