Real Time Systems: A Survey

What are real-time systems? Instead of trying to define them, we can think of real time systems as those that react to external stimuli in a timely and reliable fashion. Real time systems are often used to solve real world problems. Some examples of real time systems include air traffic control, automatic pilots, unmanned robots etc. Current research in real time systems lags far behind that in other areas. This is due to a largely false notion of what real time systems are and what they involve. I begin this survey by describing some of the characteristics of real time systems. Then I will dispel some of the misconceptions and make an argument for the importance of further research in the area. Next I will present some formal methods for specifying and verifying real time systems. Most of the current real time systems have been written in conventional programming languages which are not very suitable for the task and do not provide control over timing constraints. Most of the real tim..