University of York, Department of Computer Science

Dr. Robert Davis


Events:
Robert is Program Chair of the 24th EUROMICRO CONFERENCE ON REAL-TIME SYSTEMS.
The closing date for submissions is the 3rd Feb. 2012.

Robert is also co-chair of the 4th Workshop on Compositional Theory and Technology for Real-Time Embedded Systems, CRTS 2011 (co-located with RTSS 2011).

Robert is a Senior Research Fellow in the Real-Time Systems Research Group and a Director of Rapita Systems Ltd.

His research interests include scheduling algorithms and schedulability analysis for real-time systems.

Robert has written more than 50 refereed publications; his most recently published research is as follows:

Recent Journal papers:

R.I. Davis and A. Burns "A Survey of Hard Real-Time Scheduling for Multiprocessor Systems." © ACM, (2011). ACM Computing Surveys, 43, 4, Article 35 (October 2011), 44 pages. DOI 10.1145/1978802.1978814. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version is available from at ACM Computing Surveys. If you make use of this survey as part of your research, then please consider referencing it as well as the specific works that it guides you to.

R.I. Davis and A. Burns, "Improved Priority Assignment for Global Fixed Priority Pre-emptive Scheduling in Multiprocessor Real-Time Systems”. Real-Time Systems, (2011) Volume 47, Number 1, pages 1-40, (First published online 22nd September 2010). DOI 10.1007/s11241-010-9106-5. The previous link is to the author's version of the work, the final publication is available at www.springerlink.com.

R.I. Davis, T. Rothvoß, S.K. Baruah, A. Burns, "Exact Quantification of the Sub-optimality of Uniprocessor Fixed Priority Pre-emptive Scheduling”. Real-Time Systems, Volume 43, Number 3, pages 211-258, November 2009 (Published online 17th July 2009). The previous link is to the author's version of the work, the final publication is available at www.springerlink.com. (Presentation)

R.I. Davis and A. Burns "Robust priority assignment for messages on Controller Area Network (CAN)”. Real-Time Systems, Volume 41, Issue 2, pages 152-180, February 2009. The previous link is to the author's version of the work, the final publication is available at www.springerlink.com.

R.I. Davis, A. Zabos, A. Burns, "Efficient Exact Schedulability Tests for Fixed Priority Real-Time Systems”. IEEE Transactions on Computers IEEE Computer Society Digital Library. IEEE Computer Society, September 2008 (Vol. 57, No. 9) pp. 1261-1276. The previous link is to the author's version of the work, the final publication is available at the IEEE Computer Society Digital Library.

Recent Conference Papers:

S. Altmeyer, R.I. Davis, C. Maiza “Pre-emption cost aware response time analysis for fixed priority pre-emptive systems” . In proceedings 32nd IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS'11), pages 261-271, Nov 29th - Dec 2nd, 2011. (Presentation)

S.K. Baruah, A. Burns, R.I. Davis “Response Time Analysis for Mixed Criticality Systems”. In proceedings 32nd IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS'11), pages 34-43, Nov 29th - Dec 2nd, 2011. (Presentation)

R.I. Davis, S. Kollmann, V. Pollex, F. Slomka, "Controller Area Network (CAN) Schedulability Analysis with FIFO queues”. In proceedings 23rd Euromicro Conference on Real-Time Systems (ECRTS), pages 45-56, July 2011. (Presentation) Best paper award.

R.I. Davis and A. Burns, “FPZL Schedulability Analysis”. In proceedings RTAS, pp. 245-256, April 2011. (Presentation)

Technical Reports:
R.I. Davis and A. Burns, “On Optimal Priority Assignment for Response Time Analysis of Global Fixed Priority Pre-emptive Scheduling in Multiprocessor Hard Real-Time Systems”. University of York, Department of Computer Science Technical Report, YCS-2009-451, April 2010.

Background
Robert received a DPhil in Computer Science from the University of York in 1995. Since then he has founded three start-up companies, all of which have succeeded in transferring real-time systems research into commercial product.

At Northern Real-Time Technologies Ltd. (1995-1997) he was responsible for development of the Volcano Controller Area Network (CAN) software library. This technology has since been used in over 20 million cars world-wide.

At LiveDevices Ltd. (1997-2001) he was responsible for development of the Real-Time Architect suite of products, including a highly efficient, single-stack Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) called SSX5. In 1999, SSX5 was the only one of eleven commercial Real-Time Operating Systems evaluated by Ford Research Laboratories to meet their stringent criteria for use in Automotive Powertrain applications. Today, OSEK compliant derivatives of the SSX5 RTOS are used in a wide range of applications by many of the worlds leading automotive manufacturers and suppliers.

In 2002, Robert returned to research at the University of York, initially working in the Advanced Computer Architectures Group on AURA pattern matching technology. Robert was responsible for developing a new version of the AURA library, achieving a 3-fold improvement in both search times and memory requirement. Today the AURA library is used extensively in research and also in a number of products marketed by Cybula Ltd.

In 2004, Robert re-joined the Real-Time Systems Research Group, where he was involved in setting up Rapita Systems Ltd., a spin out company, aimed at transferring worst-case execution time analysis technology into industry. Today this technology is used by leading Avionics, Space and Telecommunications companies.

Potential PhD Students
Potential PhD students should contact me via email to discuss possible PhD studies prior to completion of University application forms.

PhD Topics


Contact Details:
Location: Office CSE/139, Department of Computer Science, University of York, Deramore Lane, York, YO10 5GH.
Telephone: +44 (0) 1904 325573.
Email: robdavis within cs.york.ac.uk