07-04-2009, 11:41 PM
Definition
Real-time systems play a considerable role in our society, and they cover a spectrum from the very simple to the very complex. Examples of current real-time systems include the control of domestic appliances like washing machines and televisions, the control of automobile engines, telecommunication switching systems, military command and control systems, industrial process control, flight control systems, and space shuttle and aircraft avionics.
All of these involve gathering data from the environment, processing of gathered data, and providing timely response. A concept of time is the distinguishing issue between real-time and non-real-time systems. When a usual design goal for non-real-time systems is to maximize system's throughput, the goal for real-time system design is to guarantee, that all tasks are processed within a given time. The taxonomy of time introduces special aspects for real-time system research.
Real-time operating systems are an integral part of real-time systems. Future systems will be much larger, more widely distributed, and will be expected to perform a constantly changing set of duties in dynamic environments. This also sets more requirements for future real-time operating systems
Timeliness is the single most important aspect of a real -time system. These systems respond to a series of external inputs, which arrive in an unpredictable fashion. The real-time systems process these inputs, take appropriate decis ions and also generate output necessary to control the peripherals connected to them. As defined by Donald Gillies "A real-time system is one in which the correctness of the computations not only depends upon the logical correctness of the computation but also upon the time in which the result is produced. If the timing constraints are not met, system failure is said to have occurred."
It is essential that the timing constraints of the system are guaranteed to be met. Guaranteeing timing behaviour requires that the system be predictable.
Most real -time systems interface with and control hardware directly. The software for such systems is mostly custom -developed. Real -time Applications can be either embedded applications or non -embedded (desktop) applications. Real -time systems often do not have standard peripherals associated with a desktop computer, namely the keyboard, mouse or conventional display monitors. In most instances, real-time systems have a customized version of these devices.
Real-time Programs: The Computational Model
A simple real -time program can be defined as a program P that receives an event from a sensor every T units of time and in the worst case, an event requires C units of computation time.
Assume that the processing of each event must always be completed before the arrival of the next event (i.e., when there is no buffering). Let the deadline for completin g the computation be D. If D < C, the deadline cannot be met. If T < D, the program must still process each event in a time O/ T, if no events are to be lost. Thus the deadline is effectively bounded by T and we need to handle those cases where C O/ D O/ T.
