BASEMENT: An Architecture and Methodology for Distributed Automotive Real-Time Systems

BASEMENT TM is a distributed real-time architecture developed for vehicle internal use in the automotive industry. BASEMENT covers application development, as well as the hardware and software that provide execution and communication support. This paper gives an overview of the BASEMENT concept, as well as presenting two system realizations. The first realization is based on the commercial real-time kernel Rubus, while the second is an ultra-dependable architecture (DACAPO) with provisions for fault tolerance at various system levels. BASEMENT is designed for the automotive systems of the future. These systems will be required to simultaneously handle multiple safety critical functions and a large number of less critical functions. All of these features are to be provided at a production cost substantially lower than that of current systems, and, at the same time, with a reliability allowing vehicles to be built without mechanical backup systems, even for safety critical subsystems such as braking and steering. The key constituents of the concept are: 1) resource sharing (multiplexing) of processing and communication resources, 2) a guaranteed real-time service for safety critical applications, 3) a best-effort service for nonsafety critical applications, 4) a communication infrastructure providing efficient communication between distributed devices, 5) a program development methodology allowing resource independent and application oriented development of application software, and 6) a straightforward and well-defined operation principle enabling efficient fault tolerance mechanisms to be employed.