Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU!dillon
From: dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: AmigaOS is real-time?
Message-ID: <8905242302.AA21440@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 24 May 89 23:02:14 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 25

:>To me, real-time means that each system call is guaranteed to complete
:>within a *defined* amount of time (which should be small).
:
:The definition I use:
:
:Real-time: The ability to respond to REAL-world events, such as interrupts,
:	   in bounded TIME.

	Heh!  Just for the hell of it I'll give you all my definition.

	A Real-time OS is able to give a process CPU within the upper and
lower bounds relative to an event where the bounds are specifiable by the
process.  An event can be anything from a hardware interrupt to a timer
signal to another process's sending of a message, etc...

	Suddenly, the problem becomes more difficult, eh?

:I still love my Amiga, though.  Real-time is nice, but isn't essential
:unless you're a missile tracking a jet fighter or a control circuit
:in a nuclear reactor deciding whether or not to shut it down.

	Yes, exactly.  A *real* real-time OS works by an entirely different
set of rules.

						-Matt