In embedded operating systems (OSes), non-functional properties like reliability, performance, or memory footprint are of special importance. State-of-the-art OS product lines focus on the configurability of functional characteristics of the system. This chapter proposes an approach that aims at also making non-functional properties indirectly configurable and maintainable by the system configurator. In order to reach this goal, the CiAO OS product line used here has configurable architectural properties, which have no functional influence on the target system, but instead bear an impact on its non-functional properties. Additionally, the chapter develops a feedback approach that gains information about the non-functional properties of an already configured system to assist further configuration decisions, and presents and details the CiAO approach and evaluates it using two case studies from the CiAO operating system.
The Design of Application-Tailorable Operating System Product Lines
