Performance Evaluation of Real-time Linux for an Industrial Real-time Platform

This paper presents a performance evaluation of real-time Linux for industrial real-time platforms. On industrial platforms, multicore processors are popular due to their work distribution efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Multicore processors, however, are not designed for applications with real-time constraints, and their performance capabilities depend on their core configurations. In order to assess the feasibility of a multicore processor for real-time applications, we conduct a performance evaluation of a general processor and a low-power processor to provide an experimental environment of real-time Linux on both Xenomai and RT-preempt considering the multicore configuration. The real-time performance is evaluated through scheduling latency and in an environment with loads on the CPU, memory, and network to consider an actual situation. The results show a difference between a low-power and a general-purpose processor, but from developer's point of view, it shows that the low-power processor is a proper solution to accommodate low power situations.