realtime design

[Bradley D. Larson]

Real-time does not always mean "micro" or nano second response.  The granularity is
dependent upon the
need of the underlying system.

The underlying premise is that the calculations are done..."in order that results
of the computation can be
used in guiding the physical process" (see gov def below).  If you can calculate
appropriate results in 30
minutes and they are used to make changes to the process every 45 minutes... That
is real time.

In the following definition I would underline:  "user senses as sufficiently
immediate" but don't want to
get yelled at by those utilizing deficient email readers.

 Real time is a level of computer responsiveness that a user senses as sufficiently
immediate or
 that enables the computer to keep up with some external process (for example, to
present
 visualizations of the weather as it constantly changes). Real-time is an adjective
pertaining to
 computers or processes that operate in real time. Real time describes a human
rather than a
 machine sense of time.

 In the days when mainframe batch computers were predominant, an expression for a
mainframe
 that interacted immediately with users working from connected terminals was online
in real time.

Source: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci214344,00.html

Government Definition:

real time: 1. The actual time during which a physical process occurs. (188) 2.
Pertaining to the performance of a computation during the actual time that the
related physical process occurs, in order that results of the computation can be
used in guiding the physical process.

Source: http://www.its.bldrdoc.gov/fs-1037/dir-030/_4450.htm




Chris Liechti wrote:

> ... what you need is an underlying realtime OS, that guaratees that the real
> time tasks get enough CPU power at the right time. without that absolutely
> no programming language can help out.
>
> chris
>
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