SANTA BARBARA, Calif., 14 Feb. 2013. Northrop Grumman engineers sought a multicore real-time operating system (RTOS) to complement the company’s Gen II Mission Computer, used to upgrade U.S. Marine Corps UH-1Y and AH-1Z helicopters. They found their solution from Green Hills Software in Santa Barbara, Calif.
“The UH-1Y and AH-1Z are highly integrated combat helicopters that require mission computers with significant yet flexible computing capabilities, which can be updated to support specific configurations,” explains Ike Song, vice president of Northrop Grumman’s Situational Awareness Systems business unit in Woodland Hills, Calif.
The Northrop Grumman Technical Refresh Mission Computer hosts Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY-178B Time-Variant Unified Multi Processing (tuMP) using a Freescale QorIQ P4080-based single-board computer.
The Green Hills Software tuMP multicore operating system is the foundation for the Northrop Grumman open systems architectural concept, providing a multicore framework for integrating applications of different programming languages, portable operating environments, and assurance needs. The scheduling capabilities of INTEGRITY-178B tuMP permit Northrop Grumman to utilize the eight cores of the Freescale QorIQ P4080, says a representative.
“Green Hills Software has developed the INTEGRITY-178B tuMP multicore operating system for customers such as Northrop Grumman who want to maximize utilization of a multicore processor using products from a supplier with a proven reputation for delivery of reliable safe and secure software,” says Dan O’Dowd, founder and chief executive officer of Green Hills Software.
Green Hills Software’s INTEGRITY-178B tuMP multicore operating system incorporates multicore operating system capabilities, including support for AMP and SMP. tuMP defines groupings (called affinity groups) of how cores will be utilized by one or more applications, with the grouping of cores and applications permitted to vary over time.
Sets of affinity groups are then scheduled independently of other sets of affinity groups, permitting time-lines that closely correspond to application requirements, yet permitting other sets of affinity groups to be developed that can make use of time windows where cores are not being utilized. Multiple schedule support further extends the tuMP scheduling capabilities, permitting tailoring of available applications and processor time resources based on the vehicles’ operational needs, such as flight or combat phase.
INTEGRITY-178B tuMP extends partitioning support beyond single-core processors, ensuring this highly flexible capability can continue to be effectively used to host multiple applications while preserving resources for application growth without concern about future availability of new single-core processor designs.
