A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time computing applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. An RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix, which manages the sharing of system resources with a scheduler, data buffers, or fixed task prioritization in a multitasking or multiprogramming environment. Processing time requirements need to be fully understood and bound rather than just kept as a minimum. All processing must occur within the defined constraints. Real-time operating systems are event-driven and preemptive, meaning the OS can monitor the relevant priority of competing tasks, and make changes to the task priority. Event-driven systems switch between tasks based on their priorities, while time-sharing systems switch the task based on clock interrupts.
In computing, load balancing is the process of distributing a set of tasks over a set of resources, with the aim of making their overall processing more efficient. Load balancing can optimize the response time and avoid unevenly overloading some compute nodes while other compute nodes are left idle.
In computer science, program optimization, code optimization, or software optimization is the process of modifying a software system to make some aspect of it work more efficiently or use fewer resources. In general, a computer program may be optimized so that it executes more rapidly, or to make it capable of operating with less memory storage or other resources, or draw less power.
In computing, scheduling is the action of assigning resources to perform tasks. The resources may be processors, network links or expansion cards. The tasks may be threads, processes or data flows.
In computer science, rate-monotonic scheduling (RMS) is a priority assignment algorithm used in real-time operating systems (RTOS) with a static-priority scheduling class. The static priorities are assigned according to the cycle duration of the job, so a shorter cycle duration results in a higher job priority.
In computer science, priority inversion is a scenario in scheduling in which a high-priority task is indirectly superseded by a lower-priority task effectively inverting the assigned priorities of the tasks. This violates the priority model that high-priority tasks can only be prevented from running by higher-priority tasks. Inversion occurs when there is a resource contention with a low-priority task that is then preempted by a medium-priority task.
An O(1) scheduler is a kernel scheduling design that can schedule processes within a constant amount of time, regardless of how many processes are running on the operating system. This is an improvement over previously used O(n) schedulers, which schedule processes in an amount of time that scales linearly based on the amounts of inputs.
Micro-Controller Operating Systems is a real-time operating system (RTOS) designed by Jean J. Labrosse in 1991. It is a priority-based preemptive real-time kernel for microprocessors, written mostly in the programming language C. It is intended for use in embedded systems.
Least slack time (LST) scheduling is an algorithm for dynamic priority scheduling. It assigns priorities to processes based on their slack time. Slack time is the amount of time left after a job if the job was started now. This algorithm is also known as least laxity first. Its most common use is in embedded systems, especially those with multiple processors. It imposes the simple constraint that each process on each available processor possesses the same run time, and that individual processes do not have an affinity to a certain processor. This is what lends it a suitability to embedded systems.
In computer science, gang scheduling is a scheduling algorithm for parallel systems that schedules related threads or processes to run simultaneously on different processors. Usually these will be threads all belonging to the same process, but they may also be from different processes, where the processes could have a producer-consumer relationship or come from the same MPI program.
Deadline-monotonic priority assignment is a priority assignment policy used with fixed-priority pre-emptive scheduling.
Optimal job scheduling is a class of optimization problems related to scheduling. The inputs to such problems are a list of jobs and a list of machines. The required output is a schedule – an assignment of jobs to machines. The schedule should optimize a certain objective function. In the literature, problems of optimal job scheduling are often called machine scheduling, processor scheduling, multiprocessor scheduling, or just scheduling.
Real-time database has two meanings. The most common use of the term refers to a database system which uses streaming technologies to handle workloads whose state is constantly changing. This differs from traditional databases containing persistent data, mostly unaffected by time. When referring to streaming technologies, real-time processing means that a transaction is processed fast enough for the result to come back and be acted on right away. Such real-time databases are useful for assisting social media platforms in the removal of fake news, in-store surveillance cameras identifying potential shoplifters by their behavior/movements, etc.
AQuoSA is an open architecture for the provisioning of adaptive Quality of Service functionality into the Linux kernel. The project features a flexible, portable, lightweight and open architecture for supporting QoS related services on the top of a general-purpose operating system as Linux. The architecture is well founded on formal scheduling analysis and control theoretical results.
The Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) was a process scheduler that was merged into the 2.6.23 release of the Linux kernel. It was the default scheduler of the tasks of the SCHED_NORMAL class and handled CPU resource allocation for executing processes, aiming to maximize overall CPU utilization while also maximizing interactive performance.
The Stack Resource Policy (SRP) is a resource allocation policy used in real-time computing, used for accessing shared resources when using earliest deadline first scheduling. It was defined by T. P. Baker. SRP is not the same as the Priority ceiling protocol which is for fixed priority tasks (FP).
The Brain Fuck Scheduler (BFS) is a process scheduler designed for the Linux kernel in August 2009 based on earliest eligible virtual deadline first scheduling (EEVDF), as an alternative to the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) and the O(1) scheduler. BFS was created by Con Kolivas.
SCHED_DEADLINE is a CPU scheduler available in the Linux kernel since version 3.14, based on the earliest deadline first (EDF) and constant bandwidth server (CBS) algorithms, supporting resource reservations: each task scheduled under such policy is associated with a budget Q, and a period P, corresponding to a declaration to the kernel that Q time units are required by that task every P time units, on any processor. This makes SCHED_DEADLINE particularly suitable for real-time applications, like multimedia or industrial control, where P corresponds to the minimum time elapsing between subsequent activations of the task, and Q corresponds to the worst-case execution time needed by each activation of the task.
Earliest deadline first (EDF) or least time to go is a dynamic priority scheduling algorithm used in real-time operating systems to place processes in a priority queue. Whenever a scheduling event occurs the queue will be searched for the process closest to its deadline. This process is the next to be scheduled for execution.
The term scheduling analysis in real-time computing includes the analysis and testing of the scheduler system and the algorithms used in real-time applications. In computer science, real-time scheduling analysis is the evaluation, testing and verification of the scheduling system and the algorithms used in real-time operations. For critical operations, a real-time system must be tested and verified for performance.
