Chapter 3: Operating in Real Time
This chapter addresses the need for embedded systems to generate real-time responses to inputs from sensors and other sources. The concepts of Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOSes) and their key features are introduced, as well as some challenges that commonly occur when implementing multitasking real-time applications. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the important characteristics of some popular open source and commercial RTOS implementations.
After completing this chapter, you will understand what it means for a system to operate in real time and will know the key attributes a real-time system must exhibit. You will understand the RTOS features that embedded systems rely upon, as well as some problems that frequently crop up in real-time embedded system designs. You will also have learned the key features of several popular RTOS implementations.
We will cover the following topics in this chapter:
- What does real-time mean? ...
