Berlin, February 11th, 2025

The Foundations of the Real-Time Operating System

Real-Time Timers and Multitasking

This is where real time begins: The RealTime Tasking Module is the fundamental element that turns Kithara RealTime Suite into a real-time system. It provides the essential mechanisms to implement “hard” real-time properties in a way that turns the software into a real-time operating system (RTOS) in terms of performance and functionality, while also being able to run parallel to Windows. The module combines the functions for programming real-time timer routines with a powerful multitasking system.

Timers can be programmed with frequencies of up to several kilohertz, with deviations (jitter) of only a few microseconds. This can be achieved by using exclusively used CPU cores on which the real-time system runs separately to prevent Windows from influencing it. Events, shared memory, pipes or sockets are available for fast data exchange between real-time and application level.

Due to the fact that most applications are based on a complex model of processes, users are provided with a priority-controlled, preemptive multitasking system. Programmable real-time tasks with up to 255 priority levels reliably ensure that only the tasks with the highest priority are executed on the various CPU cores. Less important tasks can therefore be interrupted at any time.

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