一個可加速資訊應用裝置建立的系統核心平台

Abstract

數位科技的進步帶來了許多在前幾年很難想像，現今卻可實現的應用。對 於那些多采多姿的特殊應用，傳統一般系統軟體並不能有效地滿足他們特 殊的需求，因為傳統的方法考慮的是大部分一般狀況。除此之外，傳統系 統在軟體元件間存在著許多複雜的相互依存關係，對於程式設計師而言， 不容易修改及重複利用軟體元件。在這篇論文裡，這些可以從重新設定、 定做系統元件得到好處的特殊用途應用稱之為”資訊應用裝置”。本篇論 文內容在於實作一個平台，以有效率地建立這些資訊應用裝置。有關於硬 體規格的低階核心元件是從頭設計的。目前的版本適用於英代爾( Intel ) 386或是以上的機器。這篇論文的貢獻可由以下說明之。第一，我們提 供了一個研究發展(R&D)的平台。經由這個平台，吾人可以有效率地設計 出資訊應用裝置的雛形，不用每次只是為了嘗試一個想法而首先要去寫很 多與機器、設備有關的程式碼。第二，所有核心元件以模組化的觀念設計 且輸出入介面都有良好的文件說明。資訊應用裝置可以從選擇他們所需要 的元件、丟棄不需要的元件而得到好處。除此之外，因為每個元件獨立於 其他部分，吾人可更容易管理這些元件。應用程式設計者對於這些元件的 行為可以有更良好的控制。第三，我們的平台包含了一個可以整合Linux X86驅動程式原始碼的包裹裝置。這個軟體元件，即包裹裝置，使得我們 的平台可以去重複使用世界上最大的驅動程式原始碼資源。新的驅動程式 可以經由稍微改變包裹裝置而使用在我們的平台上。最後，這個平台以實 驗來評估。經由實驗結果，我們將分享建構這個平台的經驗，及討論驅動 程式架構對於即時系統應用的影響。 The advances in digital technologies have given birth to many applications, which were hard to image in the past decade but are real in current time. For the versatile but specialized applications, general system software in tradition does not perform well to serve their specific demanding requests, because the general approach is designed to concern with most of the general cases. Besides, there exists complex dependency among software components in a traditional system, such that to modify or to reuse software components is not easy for application designers. In this thesis, the specialized applications that can be benefited from configurable and customized system components are termed as information-appliances. A framework for building up information-appliances efficiently is the body of this thesis. All the low-level core components that relate to hardware specifications are designed from scratch. The current version is dedicated for Intel 386 or newer processors.The contributions of this thesis can be illustrated as follows. First, our work supplies a research and development (R&D) platform. Through our work, researchers and designers can build their information-appliance prototypes efficiently that they do not need to implement so many low-level components first just for trying one tiny idea. Second, all the core components are designed modularly and well documented in exported and imported interface. Information-appliance performance can be benefited from this design by dropping any components that are not used by them. In addition, our work supply higher chances for specific management since each component is isolated and independent to others. Application designers can have more controls in behavior of each component. Third, our work includes a wrapper-socket for incorporating Linux X86 device drivers. This specific core component, the wrapper-socket, enables our work to make reuse of the biggest device driver source pool in the world directly. Any new patches or versions about the Linux device driver sources can patch to our framework directly, just with very minor modifications to the wrapper-socket implementation. Finally, the whole core-work is evaluated via empirical measurements. From these experimental results, the experiences about the system buildup, discussions about the device driver architecture impacts to real-time applications are also presented in this thesis.