Operating system having a non-interrupt cooperative multi-tasking kernel and a method of controlling a plurality of processes with the system

摘要

A multitasking operating system (10) for controlling performance of a plurality of processes (24). A plurality of event queues (32) are provided, with each event queue corresponding to a process and having a priority. An event scheduler function (40) places events to be processed into the event queues (32). Each event queue (32) which has at least one event to be processed is an active event queue. An event fetch function (42) searches the event queues (32) for an active event queue having the highest priority, and retrieves an event for processing from that event queue. An event dispatcher function (52) dispatches the retrieved event to a state of the process (24) corresponding to the highest priority active event queue. The state is at least a portion of the corresponding process (24) and is associated with the processing of the retrieved event. The state is executed by a processor (20) to process the event. The execution is not interrupted because of any activity within the event queues. The kernel (18) regains control after execution of the state, and the processor (20) does not proceed (i.e., halted) to another state of the corresponding process (24) until the event dispatcher function (52) of the kernel dispatches a retrieved event to another state of the corresponding process.