JamaicaVM Realtime Technology Advanced in the HIJA Project

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16-Feb-07

JamaicaVM Realtime Technology Advanced in the HIJA Project

Karlsruhe, February 16, 2007.

Karlsruhe, February 16, 2007. With the successful completion of the HIJA Project, aicas provides new tools and techniques for developing realtime systems in Java. Technology developed through aicas' long experience in deterministic and realtime Java provided a reliable basis tool development in HIJA. In this project, aicas extended their JamaicaVM realtime Java technology by developing statical analysis tools for runtime error detection and resource usage, and for runtime debugging and monitoring.

Static analysis is performed with control and data flow information provided by a program wide Data Flow Analysis (DFA): a technique to determines the set of values that each variable may hold. This technique may be now used with the JamaicaVM to analyze an application to ensure the absence of runtime errors and the proper use of monitors (i.e. with proper ceiling priorities and without causing any deadlock). In addition, the result from DFA is used for Memory Usage analysis, i.e. for determining the worst case heap memory, scope memory, and stack usage for all tasks in an application.

Runtime debugging and monitoring have been added by implementing the Java Virtual Machine Toolkit Interface (JVMTI).  This interface provides all facilities necessary for supporting debugging and monitoring tools.   JVMTI routines can be used to stop and start Java threads, read and write variables and fields, set and clear breakpoints, and step through code or continue execution.  It is implemented as a light weight native interface in the JVM and this independence makes it possible for vendors to provide special agents adapted to particular tasks and embedded environments.

aicas led the development of a Safety Critical Java specification in the HIJA project which is a subset of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ).  This specification was selected as the basis for the safety critical Java standard being developed by the JSR 302 group of the Java Community process led by The Open Group (www.opengroup.org).  The basic features in this proposal includes the use of a special Safety Critical VM library, priority ceiling emulation protocol for monitors, and a limited memory model, e.g., no garbage collection and heap memory, just immortal and scoped memory.  In the course of this work, the JamaicaVM was ported to an ARINC 653 System.  The goal of this effort is enable Java technology to be used for developing DO 178-B level A certifiable systems.

Additionally, members of the aicas team wrote two papers describing their tools developed during the HIJA project, which where accepted for presentation at the 4th Workshop on Java Technologies for Realtime and Embedded Systems—JTRES 2006: the paper "Proving the Absence of RTSJ Related Runtime Errors through Data Flow Analysis" and the paper "Provably Correct Loops Bounds for Realtime Java Programs", where the authors present a methodology combining data flow analysis and deductive formal verification for providing more general loop bounds.

About aicas (www.aicas.com)

aicas is a producer of modern software development tools especially for embedded systems and time critical control applications. Their principal product is the realtime Java development suite, the JamaicaVM, one of the first commercial implementations of the Real-Time Specification for Java (RTSJ). The company was founded in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2001. A second company was founded in 2005 in New Haven, CT to serve the US market. There is also a subsidiary in Japan. Important customers include EADS, Siemens, Boeing, and space agencies ESA and JAXA.

About JamaicaVM

JamaicaVM is a Java implementation for deeply embedded and time critical systems. JamaicaVM is based on an advanced realtime memory management technology (garbage collection) enabling the use of Java technology even for time and safety critical applications. Tools, such as the Jamaica Compiler and Builder, optimize the runtime performance and memory demand and provide for the analysis of the realtime behavior of Java applications.

About HIJA

HIJA (High Integrity Java) was an project sponsored by the European Union IST Sixth Framework, IST-511718. During its two years (June 2004--September 2006) the HIJA partners worked on defining and implementing a new High Integrity Java for networked realtime embedded systems. As embedded systems pervade society, their design, maintenance, and certification will require highly flexible, hardware independent technology to ensure cost effectiveness. Therefore, the strategic objective of the HIJA project was to advance realtime systems implementation technologies to support the development of Architecturally Neutral, high integrity RealTime Systems (ANRTS). More specifically, the main goal of the HIJA partners was to demonstrate that Java technology can be used as an effective ANRTS.

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