Real-time operating system facts for kids
A real-time operating system (RTOS; commonly pronounced as "are-toss") is a multitasking operating system designed for real-time applications. Such applications include embedded systems, industrial robots, scientific research equipment and others.
An RTOS simplifies the creation of a real-time applications, but does not guarantee the final result will be real-time; this requires good development of the software.
Real-time operating systems use specialized scheduling algorithms in order to provide the real-time applications. An RTOS can respond more quickly and/or predictably to an event than other operating systems.
The main features of an RTOS are minimal interrupt latency and a minimal thread switching latency.
The basic two designs for RTOS are:
- Event-driven (priority scheduling) designs: switch tasks only when an event of higher priority needs service, called pre-emptive priority.
- Time-sharing designs: switch tasks on a clock interrupt, and on events, called round robin.
Examples
These are the best known, most widely used real-time operating systems. See List of real-time operating systems for a full list. Also, see List of operating systems for all types of operating systems.
- Windows CE
- QNX
- RTLinux
- VxWorks
- TRON
Related pages
- Operating system
- BIOS
- Rate-monotonic scheduling
- Adaptive Partition Scheduler
- Earliest deadline first scheduling
See also
In Spanish: Sistema operativo de tiempo real para niños
