Path: utzoo!mnetor!tmsoft!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!psuvax1!psuvm!esoc!kkeyte From: KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET (Karl Keyte) Newsgroups: comp.realtime Subject: Re: AmigaDOS as realtime system? Message-ID: <91061.164211KKEYTE@ESOC.BITNET> Date: 3 Mar 91 15:05:43 GMT References: <1566@swrinde.nde.swri.edu> <1991Feb27.090231.5412@newcastle.ac.uk> <1991Feb28.194655.1294@eecs.wsu.edu> Lines: 27 Organisation: European Space Operation Centre (E.S.O.C) Since you all seem to have worked on Nuclear reactor controllers, space shuttles, Space stations, etc., you clearly know lots about real-time systems. The conversations, however, about Amiga's suitability for real-time applications seem to be more directed towards it's ability to act as a rapid process controller. The theoretical (& we'll start getting very pedantic if we take it much further) definition of "real-time" addresses issues such as process scheduling (assuming of course that whatever system is being used is capable of handling more than one concurrent process), interrupt priorities, system service reentrancy, context switch time, preemptive scheduling, and much more. There aren't many "real-time" Operating Systems around that stand up to the definition. Since the Amiga argument is starting to test the definitions, I think we should close that one. Someone did point out that there is a difference between very fast and real-time, and it's certainly true. Let's just say that the Amiga is very fast (for some things), and can control some external devices at an acceptable level of service. ======================================================================== Karl Keyte Phone: +(49) 6151 902041 European Space Operations Centre Fax: +(49) 6151 90495 Robert-Bosch Strasse 5, D-6100 Darmstadt, Germany ========================================================================