A growing concern of mine has been the unrealistic expectations for new computer-related technologies introduced into all kinds of organizations. Unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment, and a schizophrenic approach to the introduction of new technologies. The UNIX and real-time UNIX operating system technologies are major examples of emerging technologies with great potential benefits but unrealistic expectations. Users want to use UNIX as a common operating system throughout large segments of their organizations. A common operating system would decrease software costs by helping to provide portability and interoperability between computer systems in today's multivendor environments. Users would be able to more easily purchase new equipment and technologies and cost-effectively reuse their applications. And they could more easily connect heterogeneous equipment in different departments without having to constantly write and rewrite interfaces. On the other hand, many users in various organizations do not understand the ramifications of general-purpose versus real-time UNIX. Users tend to think of "real-time" as a way to handle exotic heart-monitoring or robotics systems. Then these users use UNIX for transaction processing and office applications and complain about its performance, robustness, and reliability. Unfortunately, the users don't realize that real-time capabilities added to UNIX can provide better performance, robustness and reliability for these non-real-time applications. Many other vendors and users do realize this, however. There are indications even now that general-purpose UNIX will go away as a separate entity. It will be replaced by a real-time UNIX. General-purpose UNIX will exist only as a subset of real-time UNIX.

A growing concern of mine has been the unrealistic expectations for new computer-related technologies introduced into all kinds of organizations. Unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment, and a schizophrenic approach to the introduction of new technologies. The UNIX and real-time UNIX operating system technologies are major examples of emerging technologies with great potential benefits but unrealistic expectations. Users want to use UNIX as a common operating system throughout large segments of their organizations. A common operating system would decrease software costs by helping to provide portability and interoperability between computer systems in today's multivendor environments. Users would be able to more easily purchase new equipment and technologies and cost-effectively reuse their applications. And they could more easily connect heterogeneous equipment in different departments without having to constantly write and rewrite interfaces. On the other hand, many users in various organizations do not understand the ramifications of general-purpose versus real-time UNIX. Users tend to think of "real-time" as a way to handle exotic heart-monitoring or robotics systems. Then these users use UNIX for transaction processing and office applications and complain about its performance, robustness, and reliability. Unfortunately, the users don't realize that real-time capabilities added to UNIX can provide better performance, robustness and reliability for these non-real-time applications. Many other vendors and users do realize this, however. There are indications even now that general-purpose UNIX will go away as a separate entity. It will be replaced by a real-time UNIX. General-purpose UNIX will exist only as a subset of real-time UNIX.

The 1986 IFAC/IFIP Workshop on real-time programming represents the 14th meeting of this workshop since it was first organized in 1971. Traditionally a meeting of a small number of experts, the papers presented at this meeting concentrate on the topics of real-time environment and executives, software development tools and languages, and special real-time applications. The continuing progress being made in this field of programming is amply reflected by the papers and should be of interest to anyone wishing to be kept up to date in the field.

The presence and use of real-time systems is becoming increasingly common. Examples of such systems range from nuclear reactors, to automotive controllers, and also entertainment software such as games and graphics animation. The growing importance of rea.

Real-Time Systems Development introduces computing students and professional programmers to the development of software for real-time applications. Based on the academic and commercial experience of the author, the book is an ideal companion to final year undergraduate options or MSc modules in the area of real-time systems design and implementation. Assuming a certain level of general systems design and programming experience, this text will extend students' knowledge and skills into an area of computing which has increasing relevance in a modern world of telecommunications and 'intelligent' equipment using embedded microcontrollers. This book takes a broad, practical approach in discussing real-time systems. It covers topics such as basic input and output; cyclic executives for bare hardware; finite state machines; task communication and synchronization; input/output interfaces; structured design for real-time systems; designing for multitasking; UML for real-time systems; object oriented approach to real-time systems; selecting languages for RTS development; Linux device drivers; and hardware/software co-design. Programming examples using GNU/Linux are included, along with a supporting website containing slides; solutions to problems; and software examples. This book will appeal to advanced undergraduate Computer Science students; MSc students; and, undergraduate software engineering and electronic engineering students. * Concise treatment delivers material in manageable sections* Includes handy glossary, references and practical exercises based on familiar scenarios* Supporting website contains slides, solutions to problems and software examples