Real-time Java to support the device property model

Today's front-end controllers, which are widely used in CERNs controls environment, feature CPUs with high clock frequencies and extensive memory storage. Their specifications are comparable to low-end servers, or even smartphones. The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) has been running on similar configurations for years now and it seems natural to evaluate the behaviour of JVMs on this environment to characterize if Firm or Soft real-time constraints can be addressed efficiently. Using Java at this low-level offers the opportunity to refactor CERNs current implementation of the device/property model and to evolve from a monolithic architecture to a promising and scalable separation of the area of concerns, where the front-end may publish raw data that other layers would decode and re-publish. This paper presents first the evaluation of Machine Protection control system requirements in terms of real-time constraints and a comparison of the respective performance of different JVMs. In a second part, we will detail the efforts towards a first prototype of a minimal RT Java supervision layer to provide access to the hardware layer.