1 - How do you classify this thesis (1 - Weak, 2 - Avarage, 3 - Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)?

3 - Above average

  2 - What is your overall expertise concerning the subject areas of this
  thesis? 

I am an expert.

  3 Technical strength (1 - Weak, 2 - Avarage, 3 - Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)

4 - Excellent

  4 Presentation. Is the thesis well written? (1 - Weak, 2 - Avarage, 3 - Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)

2 - Average

  5 - Summary of the thesis (Short summary of the thesis)
  
This thesis adapts existing scheduling theory to a practical application case within the area of vehicle control systems. A large part of the thesis consists of background information, the purpose of which is to guide the reader to the research results relevant for the work. Another part of the thesis consists of manipulation of existing theories in order to make 
them useful for the studies application domain.

  6 - Points in favour and against (also sent to the authors)

Overall, this thesis is a very useful document for anyone who are engaged 
in similar problems. The presented results are very nice and the literature survey is next to excellent in its throughness. The thesis consists of a 
very clear description of the problem statement and methodology used.

Unfortunately, the thesis loses many point because it is so "heavy" in terms of background material. This reader quickly lost iterest from time to time because of the large collection of results and theories presented in a 
very dense form. It would have been nice to see a more structured taxonomy when presenting background material so that the thesis work could be better put into context while reading those sections. Otherwise, the thesis is 
well written language-wise.
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1 - How do you classify this thesis (1 – Weak, 2 – Avarage, 3 – Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)?

	3 Excellent

2 - What is your overall expertise concerning the subject areas of this thesis?

	2 – I am knowledgeable in the area, though not an expert

3 – Technical strength (1 – Weak, 2 – Avarage, 3 – Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)

	4 Excellent

4 – Presentation. Is the thesis well written? (1 – Weak, 2 – Avarage, 3 – Above avarage, 4 - Exellent)

	3 Above avarage

5 - Summary of the thesis (Short summary of the thesis)

	Two types of real-time tasks are supported in the vehicle control
        systems developed by Volvo CE:
        hard off-line scheduled and soft on-line scheduled tasks.

        The possibilities of decreasing the utilization of the
        processors by moving functionality from the hard
        off-line scheduled parts to the soft on-line scheduled parts
        is investigated.

        The thesis consists of a case study, a literature study and
        presentations of different solutions ranging from support to the development
        process to system modifications including modifications of the scheduling
        algorithms. The major part of the litterature study and the
        description of solutions is devoted to the application of the concept
        of Weakly hard systems.

6 - Points in favour and against (also sent to the authors)

 	Points in favour:

        The authors present, what appears to be, good solutions to the problem
        of improving the usage of the system resources. The results should
        be of great value for Volvo CE.

        The authors have demonstrate a good understanding of the subject
        area as the solutions selected from the extensive litterature study
        were not possible to apply directly without modification to the Volvo CE system.

        The quality of the study is increased as the authors do not only consider
        pure scheduling aspects but also the impact on the development process
        including requirement specification.

	Points against:


        Although the thesis is well written, some minor remarks could be made.

        - An abbreviations section is lacking.

	- Motivations are lacking for some propositions made in the thesis.

        - There are some minor language misstakes

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5 - Summary of the thesis (Short summary of the thesis)
Volvo CE uses the Rubus RTOS in several vehicle based systems, and wants to free system resources by moving software functionality from the hard off-line scheduled part (Red) to the softer on-line scheduled part (Blue), with preserved system requirements. A number of solutions to this problem is presented in the thesis. A concept based on hard real-time systems, weakened to include a precisely bounded and predictable distribution of lost deadlines, called "Weakly Hard" real-time systems, has greatly influenced the presented solutions.  It was modified to suit the development process and architecture at Volvo CE. A simple solution of guaranteeing on-line scheduled tasks, in the background of a static cyclic off-line schedule, is also presented as a complement to the Weakly Hard concept. Suggestions on how to improve the Rubus RTOS toolbox, in order to use the "Weakly Hard" concept, are presented.


6 - Points in favour and against (also sent to the authors)
Pros:
Good scientific standard of this thesis. 
Good literature study, with the findings from the most relevant documents well explained.


Cons:
Concentrated on the Volvo needs, and the Rubus strategy. The application of the Weakly Hard concept in other RTOS would have been interesting to read about. No implementation of the suggested strategies, would have been interesting. Sometimes too wordy writing.  A comma now and then would make the thesis more readable.

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