System communication
Operate your systems securely and efficiently
Thanks to hardware-assisted segmentation, the RTS Hypervisor rigorously separates all operating systems from one another. In a complex system, however, it is often vital for applications of a specific operating system (OS) to coordinate activities with programs running on a different OS. To assure correct and efficient operation of the overall system, reliable communication methods must be established. The RTS Hypervisor provides three different ways for operating systems to communicate with each other: a virtual network, shared memory, and an event system. Not only do these methods ease inter-system communication; they allow for reliable synchronization between the operating systems in no time as well.
Virtual network
A virtual network provides for seamless socket-based communication. Similar to a traditional Ethernet data communication network, the virtual network conveys data between network nodes via standard network protocols. Each core can be assigned its own IP and MAC address. Thanks to the support of several established protocols like TCP/IP, OPC, or CORBA, there is no need for developers to spend time on learning proprietary inter-system communication methods.
Information is exchanged via a dedicated area in the main memory. This allows fast data transfers between the different operating systems.
Shared memory
With shared memory areas, applications running on different operating systems can rapidly and easily exchange data via the main memory. In the configuration file, one or more memory partitions can be configured as shared memory sections.
The RTS Hypervisor helps to maintain data integrity. It provides lock mechanisms and prevents shared memory partitions from overlapping with memory sections reserved for specific operating systems.
Cache coherency is maintained by the processor automatically.
Event system
The event system permits programs executed on different operating systems to communicate with one another via user-created, named events. Applications can send signals to certain events and wait for specific signals to arrive.
Thanks to the use of Inter Processor Interrupts, no hypervisor interaction is necessary.
External communication example
Access to external networks safely takes place via a physical network adapter which is exclusively assigned to a dedicated ›edge OS‹. This eliminates the need for expensive external gateways. Data integrity is assured: For external devices, shared memory can be defined read-only.
