"Linux is well tuned for throughput-limited
applications, but it is not well designed for deterministic
response, though enhancements to the kernel are available to help
or guarantee determinism. So-called real-time applications require,
among other things, deterministic response. In this article I
examine the nature of real-time applications and Linux's strengths
and weaknesses in supporting such applications. In later articles I
will examine various approaches to help real-time applications
satisfy hard real-time requirements. Most of these issues are with
respect to the Linux kernel, but the GNU C library, for example,
plays a part in some of this."
