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diff --git a/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md b/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..167939c --- /dev/null +++ b/book/en/src/by-example/timer-queue.md @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +# Timer queue + +When the `timer-queue` feature is enabled the RTFM framework includes a *global +timer queue* that applications can use to *schedule* software tasks to run at +some time in the future. + +> **NOTE**: The timer-queue feature can't be enabled when the target is +> `thumbv6m-none-eabi` because there's no timer queue support for ARMv6-M. This +> may change in the future. + +> **NOTE**: When the `timer-queue` feature is enabled you will *not* be able to +> use the `SysTick` exception as a hardware task because the runtime uses it to +> implement the global timer queue. + +To be able to schedule a software task the name of the task must appear in the +`schedule` argument of the context attribute. When scheduling a task the +[`Instant`] at which the task should be executed must be passed as the first +argument of the `schedule` invocation. + +[`Instant`]: ../../api/rtfm/struct.Instant.html + +The RTFM runtime includes a monotonic, non-decreasing, 32-bit timer which can be +queried using the `Instant::now` constructor. A [`Duration`] can be added to +`Instant::now()` to obtain an `Instant` into the future. The monotonic timer is +disabled while `init` runs so `Instant::now()` always returns the value +`Instant(0 /* clock cycles */)`; the timer is enabled right before the +interrupts are re-enabled and `idle` is executed. + +[`Duration`]: ../../api/rtfm/struct.Duration.html + +The example below schedules two tasks from `init`: `foo` and `bar`. `foo` is +scheduled to run 8 million clock cycles in the future. Next, `bar` is scheduled +to run 4 million clock cycles in the future. `bar` runs before `foo` since it +was scheduled to run first. + +> **IMPORTANT**: The examples that use the `schedule` API or the `Instant` +> abstraction will **not** properly work on QEMU because the Cortex-M cycle +> counter functionality has not been implemented in `qemu-system-arm`. + +``` rust +{{#include ../../../../examples/schedule.rs}} +``` + +Running the program on real hardware produces the following output in the console: + +``` text +{{#include ../../../../ci/expected/schedule.run}} +``` + +## Periodic tasks + +Software tasks have access to the `Instant` at which they were scheduled to run +through the `scheduled` variable. This information and the `schedule` API can be +used to implement periodic tasks as shown in the example below. + +``` rust +{{#include ../../../../examples/periodic.rs}} +``` + +This is the output produced by the example. Note that there is zero drift / +jitter even though `schedule.foo` was invoked at the *end* of `foo`. Using +`Instant::now` instead of `scheduled` would have resulted in drift / jitter. + +``` text +{{#include ../../../../ci/expected/periodic.run}} +``` + +## Baseline + +For the tasks scheduled from `init` we have exact information about their +`scheduled` time. For hardware tasks there's no `scheduled` time because these +tasks are asynchronous in nature. For hardware tasks the runtime provides a +`start` time, which indicates the time at which the task handler started +executing. + +Note that `start` is **not** equal to the arrival time of the event that fired +the task. Depending on the priority of the task and the load of the system the +`start` time could be very far off from the event arrival time. + +What do you think will be the value of `scheduled` for software tasks that are +*spawned* instead of scheduled? The answer is that spawned tasks inherit the +*baseline* time of the context that spawned it. The baseline of hardware tasks +is `start`, the baseline of software tasks is `scheduled` and the baseline of +`init` is `start = Instant(0)`. `idle` doesn't really have a baseline but tasks +spawned from it will use `Instant::now()` as their baseline time. + +The example below showcases the different meanings of the *baseline*. + +``` rust +{{#include ../../../../examples/baseline.rs}} +``` + +Running the program on real hardware produces the following output in the console: + +``` text +{{#include ../../../../ci/expected/baseline.run}} +``` |
