PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF A FRAMEWORK FOR DISTRIBUTED REAL-TIME DRIVING SIMULATION APPLICATIONS USING WINDOWS® BASED PCS
Yiannis E. Papelis · 2003
This paper describes how the ever-decreasing cost of personal computers (PCs) has made them attractive platforms on top of which to design and implement driving simulators. Combined with the rapid advancement of processor power and the availability of powerful graphics cards, driving simulators built exclusively on commodity PCs are feasible and becoming commonplace. Furthermore, networking using affordable Ethernet hardware makes it possible to combine the power of multiple PCs and provide systems with aggregate capabilities that were unheard of only a few years ago. Related to the applicability and performance of these systems is the choice of operating system. The choices include dedicated real-time operating systems, Linux, and Windows ® NT/2000/XP, all of which have their respective advantages and disadvantages. Of primary concern is the degree of determinism afforded by each of these choices, as well as the availability and cost of development tools. This paper provides an architectural framework that supports distributed real-time systems, with special emphasis on driving simulation applications built on top of commodity PCs with focus on the applicability of PC hardware Windows NT ® and later. Detailed performance figures are provided for determinism of the system, both in stand-alone as well as distributed modes.