K. David Young, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Ken Kin Man Cheng, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Rickey Nim Ho Leung, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

In this paper, we provide our experience at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology on applying real time Linux over the past decade to embedded industrial automation. The vintage of real time Linux deployed followed closely the history of real time Linux development, vis-à-vis RTLinux, Linux with RTAI extension, and at present, Linux with Real Time Patch. We shall describe system integration industrial projects which we had delivered using real time Linux as the underlying operating system on which application software were developed using UML as the primary software engineering tool. For embedded hardware platforms, both ARM9 and Intel x86 architecture were utilized, and more recently, Intel Core-Duo and Dual core ATOM. In addition to industrial applications, we shall share our experience in the past two years in an undergraduate curriculum development effort in real time embedded automation; experience we have gained in our earlier industrial projects were primarily inputs to how we structured our courseware modules. Finally, we shall summarize our latest experience this year on developing real time multi-thread industrial automation applications on Intel's multi-core architecture and multi-core programming practice.