Real-time computing

Real-time refers to hardware and software systems which

are subject to constraints in time. Some kinds of software,

such as many chess-playing programs, are allowed as much time

as needed to perform a computation such as the next chess move.

Web servers are an example of software that people work hard to

optimize for performance, yet performance problems rarely incur

any serious penalty.

Real-time systems are typically used where there is some

interaction with a physical system wherein the luxury of

unlimited computing time is not possible. An example would be

the software that maintains and updates the flight plans

for commercial airliners. It would not be possible to offer

modern commercial air travel if these computations could not

reliably be performed in real time.

The needs of real-time software are often addressed with the

framework upon which to build real-time application software.