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.