Paul McKenney recently summarized seven approaches to real-time Linux, in an epic 6,000-word post to the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML). This article presents McKenney's original post, followed by a TalkBack discussion thread where readers can offer McKenney feedback for a possible followup post to LKML.

McKenney writes, “I will probably post a slight update to LKML sometime next week, but would appreciate feedback from your group as well.”

McKenney begins with an overview of the requirements of real-time operating systems, continues with a summary of the specific features desired (including QoS, APIs, complexities, fault isolation, etc.), and then proceeds to review the following seven real-time Linux approaches relative to the defined needs:

• non-CONFIG_PREEMPT
  
• CONFIG_PREEMPT
  
• CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT
  
• Nested OS
  
• Dual-OS/Dual-Core
  
• Migration Between OSes
• Migration Within OS

Learn about a vibrant and controversial area of Linux development in this excellent technical overview, and join the discussion in the talkback provided at the end!

 
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