Architecting-High-Performance-Embedded-Systems, by Jim Ledin. Published by Packt Publishing.
This chapter addresses the need for embedded systems to generate real-time responses to inputs measured 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 presentation 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 have learned what makes an operating system “real-time” and will understand the RTOS features that embedded systems rely upon, as well as some challenges that frequently occur 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?
- Attributes of a real-time embedded system
- Understanding key RTOS features and challenges
- Popular real-time operating systems
ControlLoop is a Microsoft Visual Studio solution containing the first two C language versions of the motor control application presented in the Performing multiple tasks section of chapter 3.
main_motor_control.c is the FreeRtos C language versions of the motor control application presented in the Performing multiple tasks section of chapter 3.