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Embedded Real-Time SystemsWhat is Embedded Software?Your car's anti-lock brake system is run by a real-time embedded computer system. So is your car's engine. The talking soda machine at work is run by a real-time embedded computer. These computers don't have keyboards or monitors like your desktop system. In fact, you might not know there's a computer in any of these. Embedded systems are computer systems where the user interface doesn't look like a "computer" as we commonly think of it. Personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones and similar devices, are narrowing the gap between embedded systems and traditional computers. With the increased complexity of embedded systems comes the need to interface with more and more complex devices such as touch screens, infrared transceivers, etc. TecKnowligence Consulting provides you access to our many years of experience in embedded systems. Device drivers, board support packages, data stream protocols, and complex algorithms are written to meet your specifications. We work with the popular operating systems, with a focus on embedded applications. What is Real-time Software?A large building climate control system keeps the temperature comfortable during the scheduled work day, but lets the temperature drift outside this comfort range when people are not normally present. The time constant of a large building is measured in hours. A pacemaker is a device implanted into the human body to control the rate at which the heart beats. If the pacemaker skips a beat or two, or runs too fast or slow, the patient may be seriously affected. We would want a pacemaker to respond in times measured in fractions of a second. To a guided missile targeting a specific military target among possible civilian buildings, "real-time" means course corrections in the microsecond range. Such speed is necessary for navigating at high speed. So, "real-time" depends on the application. TecKnowligence consultants are experienced in applications covering the full range of "real-time." We can help you determine what "real-time" is for your application, including trade-offs between hardware and software, online and batch processing, the use of coprocessors, and many other considerations. We can also provide programming expertise to meet your real-time software needs. © Copyright 2012 |