VxWorks 7: VxWorks Exceptions, Interrupts, and Watchdog Timers

Learn about these key VxWorks components that help you work with interrupts and exceptions.

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About this course

In this course, you will understand how the VxWorks exception mechanism helps you to diagnose the cause of application software faults. You will also learn how to catch exceptions from the kernel and RTPs so that the target will recover from them within your application code. The Error Detection and Reporting (ED&R) mechanism lets you understand the cause and status of target exceptions. Furthermore, you will learn about hardware interrupts by exploring the watchdog timer API. You will discover how the VxWorks work queue minimizes kernel latency, and how you can best write your interrupt service routines to take account of it. Finally, the labs will let you practically explore exceptions and the ED&R system.

Product: VxWorks 7
Based on: SR540
Applicable for: All VxWorks 7

 

Learning Objectives

One of the less well-understood aspects of the VxWorks operating system might be its exception handling subsystem, its support for signals, interrupts, and watchdog timers.

What are exceptions? When exactly do they occur and what happens when they do? Can we predict when they will happen and code our applications to catch and cope with exceptions? How do exceptions differ from hardware interrupts, or are they actually the same thing? What’s more, what has all this got to do with signals? Are they the same thing as interrupts?

Related to all these issues, how are hardware interrupts handled by VxWorks? And how do we write an interrupt handler function that’s efficient, but also safe and reliable for a VxWorks-based real-time system? In other words, how do we avoid a situation that sends the VxWorks kernel into a panic state?

Finally, what are VxWorks watchdog timers, and are they related to exceptions and interrupts in any way?

This course will explore these tricky issues in some detail so that you are armed with an understanding of how VxWorks reacts in different failure conditions. This will help you quickly handle failure conditions that crop up when you are developing your own code. It will give you insights to help you understand the really tough situations.

 

Course Syllabus:

 

About this course

In this course, you will understand how the VxWorks exception mechanism helps you to diagnose the cause of application software faults. You will also learn how to catch exceptions from the kernel and RTPs so that the target will recover from them within your application code. The Error Detection and Reporting (ED&R) mechanism lets you understand the cause and status of target exceptions. Furthermore, you will learn about hardware interrupts by exploring the watchdog timer API. You will discover how the VxWorks work queue minimizes kernel latency, and how you can best write your interrupt service routines to take account of it. Finally, the labs will let you practically explore exceptions and the ED&R system.

Product: VxWorks 7
Based on: SR540
Applicable for: All VxWorks 7

 

Learning Objectives

One of the less well-understood aspects of the VxWorks operating system might be its exception handling subsystem, its support for signals, interrupts, and watchdog timers.

What are exceptions? When exactly do they occur and what happens when they do? Can we predict when they will happen and code our applications to catch and cope with exceptions? How do exceptions differ from hardware interrupts, or are they actually the same thing? What’s more, what has all this got to do with signals? Are they the same thing as interrupts?

Related to all these issues, how are hardware interrupts handled by VxWorks? And how do we write an interrupt handler function that’s efficient, but also safe and reliable for a VxWorks-based real-time system? In other words, how do we avoid a situation that sends the VxWorks kernel into a panic state?

Finally, what are VxWorks watchdog timers, and are they related to exceptions and interrupts in any way?

This course will explore these tricky issues in some detail so that you are armed with an understanding of how VxWorks reacts in different failure conditions. This will help you quickly handle failure conditions that crop up when you are developing your own code. It will give you insights to help you understand the really tough situations.

 

Course Syllabus: