Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems: Part 5
Previous articles have explained one traditional aspect of an RTOS, responsive scheduling. This article details other factors to consider when choosing to use an RTOS.
Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems: Part 4
All real-time operating systems have “gotchas”, even those targeted at critical applications. The most infamous is “priority inversion”. This article outlines what this is and explains how it can degrade a system’s performance.
Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems: Part 3
Disabling interrupts can cripple system responsiveness. This article discusses how RTOSes minimise interrupt disabling to give the best possible response time to critical events.
Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems: Part 2
In the embedded world, the use of a real-time operating system (RTOS) is commonplace, and with the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) they are becoming more so. You may be deciding to use an RTOS for the first time, or perhaps you are thinking of moving to a new one. This is the second article in our series on RTOSes to help you to get started.
Introduction to Real-Time Operating Systems: Part 1
Critical systems must meet deadlines reliably. A driverless car must stop in time to avoid collisions, so how does it try to ensure this? This blog is the first in a series of posts that introduces some of the main concepts of real-time operating systems (RTOS), that is, systems that provide determinism and predictability. It answers the fundamental question, "what is an RTOS?", and discusses the difference between "hard" and "soft" real-time use cases. The aim is to empower any reader looking at real-time systems for the first time by arming them with the basic level of knowledge required to understand this somewhat specialist topic.
