Transparent Programming of Many/Multi Cores with OpenComRTOS: Comparing Intel 48-core SCC and TI 8-core TMS320C6678

Developing software for non SMP multi-core systems such as the 48 core Intel-SCC or the TI-TMS320C6678 is a complex task, and will become even harder with the emerging heterogeneous multi-core systems combining different architectures on a single chip. To tackle this issue, Altreonic has adopted a formalized approach to embedded systems development. Of particular interest is the formally developed OpenComRTOS, that allows one to program distributed systems ranging from single node microcontrollers, over multi-core to networks of heterogeneous networked processing nodes, in a fully transparent way. The current implementation can theoretically handle 2 nodes. Together with its tools it provides the core of OpenComRTOS Designer. This paper reports the results of porting OpenComRTOS to the Intel-SCC, i.e. code size and performance figures comparing them with other ports, with a focus on the TI-TMS320C6678. Furthermore, it describes the basic structure of the OpenComRTOS Intel-SCC port, focussing on the inter-core communication.