Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!emory!stiatl!srchtec!johnb
From: johnb@srchtec.UUCP (John Baldwin)
Newsgroups: comp.realtime
Subject: Technical Details (was Re: Measuring timing of Realtime Systems)
Summary: Wanted- more postings on "how to do RT".
Message-ID: <182@srchtec.UUCP>
Date: 28 Aug 90 21:20:53 GMT
References: <9724@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> <12582@netcom.UUCP>
Organization: search technology, inc.
Lines: 47
Distribution:

Not to start flames, but I must comment that it is about time we had some
*real* real-time postings....


In article <12582@netcom.UUCP> mcmahan@netcom.UUCP (Dave Mc Mahan) writes:
>
> In a previous article, gaulandm@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM writes:
>>..[excerpted]...  How do *you* measure the time it takes your system
>> to respond to an interrupt or input, or execute a subroutine?
>
> ...[followed by a generous, detailed, and useful response]...


Perhaps this is a bit off the normal track, but have any of us considered
how many postings are of the "what RT/OS do *you* recommend?" variety?
My comment is not meant to demean this class of postings, as they obviously
fill a real need: airing the user's perspective of several real-time "strata"
instead of just the usual marketing hyperbole.  My concern is simply that
there seems to be very little conversation concerning anything else.

Forgive my ignorance, but is it simply that most readers and/or posters are
very well-experienced in real-time, and so well-versed that design or
implementation issues are considered passe?  After reading comp.realtime
for a little more than two months, I simply cannot tell.

I, for one, am relatively new to real-time, yet have been tasked with helping
to develop an RT plan for the project I'm working on.
[Uh Oh.  NOW you've said it, John.  You've admitted you're a novice.
 Might as well forget being taken seriously.   :-) ]

What formal methods have you (personally!) tried in the past?  Which worked
and which didn't?  It would be especially interesting (and useful) to know
what things worked well on paper, but produced mediocre results, or worse.

Most of the reading I've been doing has been concerning the "Rate Monotonic
Theory."  A problem I've run up against is that I cannot easily find any
strongly opposed alternative methods.  I'm sure there must be at least one.

Does anyone know of a good paper presenting the "con" side of the RM theory,
or could you post a short (!) statement of the current position of
various methods?

-- 
John T. Baldwin                      |  johnb%srchtec.uucp@mathcs.emory.edu
Search Technology, Inc.              | 
                                     | "... I had an infinite loop,
My opinions; not my employers'.      |  but it was only for a little while..."