| Question: what is a kernel?
It's like an operating system. It dispatches and organizes the execution of
various tasks (a scheduler). It provides a mean for inter-task communication
and task isolation. For example, the task controlling injector duration
does not need to know how to measure, say, the coolant temp. The kernel
periodically runs a task that does that and communicates that value to the
injector duration task. It provides a higher degree of isolation and
structure to the problem. It also organizes competing task for things like
hardware. By the use of semaphores, the resource of an ADC can be
allocated to the coolant measurement task, air temp measurement task, O2
sensor measurement task, etc. All of which can run at different rates and be
unaware of the others. Bottom line: a large problem like EFI can be broken up
into several smaller tasks that may only need a few lines of C-code!
It's an alternative to writing one long "loop" of software that must keep
track of timing and on which loops to measure what and when to do this or
that. The kernel will do all that for you. Ok... It's a luxury... :)
John S Gwynne
Gwynne.1 at osu.edu
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T h e O h i o - S t a t e U n i v e r s i t y
ElectroScience Laboratory, 1320 Kinnear Road, Columbus, Ohio 43212, USA
Telephone: (614) 292-7981 * Fax: (614) 292-7292
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