RTLinux is a kernel patch which allows hard realtime operations on a Linux system. The basic concepts include:
- Unconditional interrupt interception
- High-resolution timing functions, giving nano-second resolution
- Independent scheduling instances, controlling the realtime tasks
- Running Linux as the lowest priority idle task, passing all interrupts destined for non-realtime tasks as ''soft-interrupts''
Guaranteed worst case jitter < 15 microseconds on x86 platforms.