The Android operating system is widely used on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets. From the first Android devices to now, this operating system has improved its features and has been extended to new hardware. Because of its widespread use and the high number of low-cost hardware platforms on which it is available, there is a great interest in using it in areas such as automotive, industrial control or medical environments, where real-time requirements are imposed.This paper presents a solution that takes advantage of both, the fact that Android is based on the Linux kernel and that most of the newest Android devices use multicore processors. Thus, we have studied the mechanisms provided by the Linux kernel to isolate CPUs. The use of these mechanisms does not require profound changes in Android, only configuration adjustments. In addition, we have determined that using appropriate isolation mechanisms, Android can be used for soft real-time purposes. Since our solution does not require major modifications of the operating system it is very portable among all kinds of devices.
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