Improving On-Board Data Processing using CPU-GPU Heterogeneous Architectures for Real-Time Systems

Abstract: This thesis investigates the efficacy of heterogeneous computing architectures in real-time systems.The goals of the thesis are twofold. First, to investigate various characteristics of the Heterogeneous System Architectures (HSA) compliant reference platforms focusing on computing performance and power consumption. The investigation is focused on the new technologies that could boost on-board data processing systems in satellites and spacecraft. Second, to enhance the usage of the heterogeneous processing units by introducing a technique for static allocation of parallel segments of tasks.The investigation and experimental evaluation show that our method of GPU allocation for the parallel segments of tasks is more energy efficient compared to any other studied allocation. The investigation is conducted under different types of environments, such as process-level isolated environment, different software stacks, including kernels, and various task set scenarios. The evaluation results indicate that a balanced use of heterogeneous processing units (CPU and GPU) could improve schedulability of task sets up to 90% with the proposed allocation technique.