Re: An important fact about real time computing

Stuart Lynne (sl@whiskey.fireplug.net)
20 Jul 2000 17:04:09 -0700

In article <2513CDDD84CED211BAC60008C75D45B10474C470@hqmail01.frc.com>,
Ingles, Raymond <Ray.Ingles@fanucrobotics.com> wrote:
>
> Normal Linux is probably adequate for most soft real-time applications,
>and probably a lot of firm real-time applications, and perhaps there's
>room for some improvement here. I think I agree with Linus that if you
>really have a hard real-time constraint, you're better off using a more
>specialized system.
>
> I'd say high-quality audio and video falls somewhere between soft and
>firm, depending on application. Sometimes an occasional glitch in the
>stream is acceptable, sometimes it isn't. However, I can't think of too
>many cases where an audio skip would lead directly to someone's death.

Desktop audio/visual is soft and must be supported in Linux for modern
systems or it (linux) will not have any chance at succeeding on the desktop.

Studio/mixing audio/visual is firm and should be supported in Linux but it is
ok to specify constrained hardware choices to get better results.

Live audio/visual may be closer to hard and given the cost of retakes may
make using RT extensions such as LXRT or RTAI reasonable.

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