When embedded in automobiles, airplanes, hand-held radios and cellular telephones, and almost anything else that either moves or blinks, software must work as reliably as the hardware it brings to life. Today, however, the typical embedded processor environment is networked, forcing its software to deal with communications and interoperability issues without compromising the reliable and timely performance that isolated embedded systems have delivered in the past. Tailored separately for minimal and single-chip environments, the Compact Profile and the Micro Profile of OMG’s CORBA/e (CORBA for embedded) specification bring industry-standard interoperability and real-time predictable behavior to Distributed Real-time and embedded (DRE) computing.
CORBA/e Summary
Embedded systems are called upon to interoperate in many ways: an automobile, a circuit-board assembly unit, or even a sophisticated office copy machine may contain multiple embedded processors, connected by a network. In an assembly plant or chemical refinery for example, process controllers may interoperate with many small sensor units, and one or a few large servers or mainframes. The combination of interoperability, deterministic execution, and absolute dependability required for these applications can only come from a mature, standard middleware. Deployed in military, industrial, and consumer applications around the world, CORBA provides these characteristics in an architecture that fits hosts from the largest ganged servers to small, networked digital signal processors (DSPs). To meet these systems’ requirements for a small footprint and deterministic execution, the Object Management Group (OMG) has taken the static aspects of industry-standard CORBA and merged them with real-time features into two new profiles under the banner CORBA/e (CORBA for embedded).
CORBA/e Compact Profile fits easily on a typical 32-bit microprocessor, running a standard real-time operating system (RTOS) – these systems may run such applications as signal or image processing with real-time dependability.
CORBA/e Micro Profile is even smaller and fits on the kind of low-powered microprocessor or high-end DSP found on mobile or hand-held equipment.
CORBA/e Profiles
The first two CORBA/e profiles – Compact and Micro – package the static features of CORBA middleware and real-time capabilities into a small footprint.
The CORBA/e Compact Profile merges the key features of standard CORBA and Real-time CORBA into a powerful yet compact middleware package that interoperates with other CORBA clients and servers of every scale, executes with the deterministic characteristics required of a true real-time platform, and leverages the knowledge and skills of your development team through its mature industry standard architecture.
Shedding the dynamic aspects of CORBA and support for the CORBA Component Model, with their unpredictable response times and unlimited potential memory usage, CORBA/e retains full IIOP interoperability. It also preserves many Portable Object Adapter (POA) options, and most of the functionality of Valuetypes and Any (excepting Dynamic Any).
To the system architect, CORBA/e levels the interoperability playing field, allowing board-based DRE systems to interoperate not only with each other, but also with all existing systems using the industry standards CORBA and IIOP. At the same time, it allows the developer to use his or her existing CORBA skills to code at full speed from the start and allows projects to hire from the industry skill-pool.
The CORBA/e Micro Profile shrinks the footprint even more, small enough to fit low-powered microprocessors or DSPs. This profile further eliminates the Valuetype, the Any type, most of the POA options preserved in the Compact Profile, and all of the Real-time functions excepting only the Mutex interface. In exchange for these limitations, the profile defines a CORBA executable that vendors have fit into only tens of kilobytes – small enough to fit onto a high-end DSP or microprocessor on a handheld device.
Even at this small size, CORBA/e Micro Profile retains full IIOP interoperability, so the advantages to the system architect and developer carry through: to the system architect, CORBA/e levels the interoperability playing field, allowing micro DRE systems to interoperate not only with each other, but with all existing systems using the industry standards CORBA and IIOP. At the same time, it allows the developer to use his or her existing CORBA skills to code at full speed from the start and allows projects to hire from the industry skill-pool.
Related Technologies
CORBA | Real-Time CORBA | MinimumCORBA | CORBA IDL | CORBA CCM | CORBA COS | CORBA & DDS | Open Source CORBA
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