MTSS: multi task stack sharing for embedded systems

Out-of-memory errors are a serious source of unreliability in most embedded systems [22]. Applications run out of main memory because of the frequent difficulty of estimating the memory requirement before deployment, either because it depends on input data, or because certain language features prevent estimation. The typical lack of disks and virtual memory in embedded systems has a serious consequence when an out-of-memory error occurs. Since there is no swap space for the application to grow into, the system crashes if its memory footprint is exceeded by even one byte. This work improves system reliability for multi-tasking embedded systems by proposing MTSS, a multi-task stack sharing technique, that grows the stack of a particular task into other tasks in the system after it has overflown its bounds. This technique can avoid the out-of-memory error if the extra space recovered is enough to complete execution. Experiments show that MTSS, on an average, is able to recover 47% of th...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2005
• Where: CASES
• Authors: Bhuvan Middha, Matthew Simpson, Rajeev Barua
• Keywords: CASES 2005, Embedded Systems, Multi-tasking Embedded Systems, Out-of-memory Error, System Software