Objective of the Study of RTS
Generally, when a computer system monitors the state of a given physical process and, if necessary, acts on it in time, then it is a real-time system.
All living beings are real-time in relation to their natural habitats, which are its “real-time system”.
On the other hand, when we build (programmable) machines to interact with physical processes, we need to use Operative Systems, Programming Techniques, and Analysis Methods that allow us to have confidence in their ability to carry out correct and timely actions.
The main objective of the study of Real-Time Systems is thus the development of techniques for:
Design;
Analysis;
Verification...
...that allow to assure that a given (computer, in our case) system has an appropriate timing behavior, satisfying the requirements imposed by the dynamics of the system with which it interacts
Regarding the computational activities of RTS, the main aspects to consider are:
Execution time;
Response time;
Regularity of periodic events.
Despite essential, these aspects are far from trivial:
Reasons for this behavior include:
Execution time:
Code structure (language, conditional execution, cycles);
DMA, cache, pipeline;
Operative System or kernel (system calls).
Response time and regularity
Interrupts;
Multi-tasking;
Access to shared resources (buses, communication ports, ...).
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