REAL-TIME EDUCATION
Jim Ready

For over 15 years I have been actively involved in the real-time computing industry and have given literally hundreds of seminars on the theory and practice of real-time computing. What concerns me is that there is relatively little difference between then and now in the understanding of the issues and technical solutions for real-time computing among the engineering population. For example, there is not a clear understanding of the subtleties of concurrent programming and the problem of shared variables. Nor is there often an appreciation of the thinking that underlies the design of synchronization primitives such as semaphores. Similarly, the subject of real-time scheduling algorithms and advanced real-time technologies such as priority inheritance protocol are virtually ignored or unknown in the industry. That these subjects were not well understood 15 years ago is perhaps understandable but that these subjects are still misunderstood now should be of great concern to the computing community, considering the dependence upon real-time systems throughout the world. It appears that real-time computing is falling through the cracks in the educational system.

Perhaps computer science departments need to re-examine how the subject of real-time computing is currently handled in the curriculum and be given a stronger emphasis in the future.