[gclist] Another request from a Newbie :-)

Nick Barnes Nick.Barnes@pobox.com
Mon, 19 May 2003 11:11:10 +0100


At 2003-05-19 09:49:43+0000, "Tobias Ritzau" writes:
> > > There are even cases of GC techniques that claim to be real-time
> > > since the shortest measured interrupt time is X. This is simply not
> > > enough for hard real-time.
> >
> > I disagree.  Many (I might even say most) real-time applications are
> > developed using exactly that kind of measure, often with a specific
> > (maybe highly demanding) test suite.  Some real-time applications
> > (e.g. safety-critical systems) may have a more rigorous method for
> > ensuring that real-time constraints are met, but many, many
> > applications do not.
> 
> I think we agree on everything here but the definition of hard
> real-time. It is common to define hard real-time systems as systems
> that must not miss any deadline, and soft real-time systems are
> systems where the quality of the output decrease if deadlines are
> missed (like video decoders etc.) Using this "definition" of hard
> real-time, it is simply not enough to claim that the system worked
> fine in tests to lauch them.

I disagree with your terminology, and with your characterisation of
common practice in the industry, but this is way off-topic so I'll
shut up.

Nick B