4DIAC-RTE

aka FORTE

as described in (2012) The IEC 61499 Function Block Standard: Software Tools and Runtime Platforms: 

The 4DIAC-­RTE (FORTE) is a small portable implementation of an IEC 61499 runtime environment targeting small embedded control devices (16/32 Bit). It provides the execution of basic function blocks, composite function blocks, and service interface function blocks.

The execution mechanisms in FORTE allow the real­time constrained execution of IEC 61499 control configurations triggered by external events, where different parts of the configuration can fulfill different real­time constraints and the execution of low priority processes does not disturb the execution of higher priority processes .

FORTE has been written to be platform­independent, to make it easy to target to diverse hardware and operating system platforms. Currently the open source version has been ported to four operating systems: POSIX (mainly Linux), Microsoft Windows (Win32), ThreadX, and eCos, the last two being real­time operating systems for embedded control systems. These ports have been tested on different hardware platforms ranging from a normal PC to small embedded control devices (e.g., for motion control).

Currently the smallest platform supported by the open source version is the Lego Mindstorms NXT controller. Like the 4DIAC-­IDE software tool, FORTE is a product of the 4DIAC open source project, and updated versions of both FORTE and 4DIAC­-IDE are provided simultaneously in the same release cycle.

Under its Eclipse Public License , changes to the FORTE open source code have to be provided under the EPL, but vendor­specific additions do not have to be made open source. Thus, this code can serve as the basis for multiple commercially­supported versions; for instance, the commercial runtime environment nxtRT61499F described below is based on FORTE.

Configurability of the FORTE platform by the FBDK and nxtSTUDIO tools, as well as by the 4DIAC­-IDE tool, and its interoperability with the FBRT and nxtRT61499F runtime platforms, have been informally tested.

 

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