Real-time computing-tri-dimensional computing

The importance of real-time computing is constantly growing. It is required in a large number of systems, including but not limited to aerospace, defense, industrial automation, nuclear engineering, and decision support. The author defines a real-time computing system as a system capable of receiving inputs from an external process, performing the required data processing, and outputting the correct response back to the process fast enough to meet process requirements. In addition, a real-time system must be able to respond to external interrupts generated by I/O devices and other systems. Therefore, a real-time system can be viewed as a three-stage pipeline: data acquisition from sensors or other input devices, data processing, and output to actuators and/or displays. A high-performance real-time system can then be characterized by three key features: superior CPU computational speed; high I/O throughput; and efficient interrupt handling capability