watchdogRT

The watchdogRT program uses device driver /dev/rtc to access a PC's battery-backed CMOS Real-Time Clock (RTC). The chip may be programmed to produce an IRQ8 interrupt after a timeout period has elapsed. The program keeps pushing that timeout time forward so that the timeout never happens, under normal operation. If the program should be blocked for too long, the interrupt will occur. To use this program, a PC motherboard must provide a means to connect the IRQ8 interrupt line to the board's RESET line. Some embedded PC boards provide a jumper for this purpose (e.g., the Ampro Little Board /P5e). The program uses a thread to do most of the work. The thread may be included in a multi-threaded program. The demonstrated technique may be used for real-time or non-real-time applications.