Implementing distributed Ada for real-time applications

Abstract

The discussion of applying a (distributed) High Order Language (HOL) to applications which require real-time performance invariably invokes the subject of excessive overhead. In a related paper, some of the basic language-specific issues involved in distributing a High Order Language, with special attention paid to the Ada language, are discussed. In a traditional implementation, several of these issues imply considerable, if not prohibitive overhead. An implementation strategy is introduced which promises to deal with these issues in a manner that will provide significant performance improvements. These improvements should in fact be sufficient to make use of distributed Ada feasible even in highly-constrained application domains. Additionally, the general approach should be applicable to nondistributed implementations as well.