IPC with Message Passing

Question

Hi,

I'm looking for suggestions on possible IPC mechanisms that I can implement in my self-made OS for an AVR32 board.

My current choice is implementing the massage passing mechanism described in the books written by Tanenbaum.

Is this a good choice? Are there easier way to implement IPC?

Thanks

Answer 1

My suggestion is to review the message passing primitives that QNX RTOS (www.qnx.com) supports before making any decisions. I spent several years programming a complex multi-process system in that environment, and it stands out as the best message-based O/S I have ever encountered.

Some specific points that spring to mind (it's been a while now):

1. Message data copied between process memory space by the kernel so that a bug in one process cannot affect another.
2. Ability to send and block for a reply.
3. Ability to drop a message on a queue and move on immediately.
4. Ability to send a message an block indefinitely until the receiver responds; the receiver may receive and process other messages in the meantime - this is way more valuable than you at first think it will be.

Answer 2

Perhaps the ZeroMQ project can be an alternative for you?