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Nucleos: a runtime system for ultra-compact wireless sensor nodes

Published: 24 October 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Nucleos is a new runtime system for ultra-lightweight embedded systems. Central to Nucleos is a dispatcher based on the concept of recursive threaded code, which enables layers of abstraction from the runtime system and interrupt handlers to application tasks to be composed in a structured, powerful way, all with minimal program code. When used in conjunction with models of computation with behavioral transparency such as synchronous dataflow (SDF), Nucleos can support efficient memory allocation policies for multiple communicating actors with minimal runtime overhead. This recursive structure also lends itself to in-field code update and dynamic execution. Nucleos's low runtime overhead and low RAM/ROM requirements enable it to run on compact platforms previously unsupported by the most popular sensor OSes while still providing high flexibility and composability. In some cases, applications running on Nucleos actually outperform hand-crafted code running without an OS, thanks to non-obvious memory optimizations enabled by the SDF model of computation.

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  • (2012)Buffer Optimization and Dispatching Scheme for Embedded Systems with Behavioral TransparencyACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems10.1145/2348839.234884517:4(1-26)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2012

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      EMSOFT '10: Proceedings of the tenth ACM international conference on Embedded software
      October 2010
      318 pages
      ISBN:9781605589046
      DOI:10.1145/1879021
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      Published: 24 October 2010

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      Author Tags

      1. operating systems
      2. recursive threaded code
      3. virtual machines
      4. wireless sensor networks

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      ESWeek '10
      ESWeek '10: Sixth Embedded Systems Week
      October 24 - 29, 2010
      Arizona, Scottsdale, USA

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      • (2012)Buffer Optimization and Dispatching Scheme for Embedded Systems with Behavioral TransparencyACM Transactions on Design Automation of Electronic Systems10.1145/2348839.234884517:4(1-26)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2012

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