This article is based on a masters thesis project which investigated the possibility of turning Linux into a real-time operating system. The authors primarily focus on available “hard real-time” solutions for Linux, but also look into some “soft real-time” variants for completeness. RTLinux and RTAI are compared, and RTAI is selected (for reasons given), and RTAI is then ported to the Axis ETRAX 100LX RISC-based system-on-chip processor. Performance tests are conducted which show that RTAI provides good real-time performance, especially when compared to standard Linux. The article includes links to the full thesis as well as to the resulting RTAI port to the ETRAX 100LX.

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