A modular approach to real-time programming using actors and Java

This paper describes an actor-based approach to real-time programming, whic h focuses on the separation of functional from timing behaviour. The approa ch favours modularity and time predictability. Clusters of actors, allocate d on distinct processors, are orchestrated by a control machine which provi des an event-driven and time-driven customisable scheduling framework. The approach can be hosted by Java, which fosters a clean and type-safe program ming style. Temporal analysis can be formally assisted by Coloured Petri Ne ts. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.