A broad introduction must come first, followed by detailed examples of real-time operating systems. Could you please explain what makes it different from a standard operating system? Real-time operating systems are built from a variety of parts that work together to achieve certain objectives.

In general, an standard operating system (OS) is in responsible for managing a computer's hardware resources and hosting any apps that need to operate on it. While an RTOS achieves these duties while also being uniquely designed to run a program with extremely accurate timing and a high level of dependability. This is particularly crucial for measurement and automation systems since downtime can be expensive and delays in processes can put users at risk for harm.

An operating system must have a defined maximum time for each of the crucial processes it conducts in order to be considered "real-time" (or at least be able to guarantee that maximum most of the time). These actions include managing interrupts and OS calls, among others. Hard real-time operating systems can promise a maximum time for certain processes with perfect certainty, whereas soft real-time operating systems can only guarantee a maximum most of the time. Since each RTOS solution displays distinct performance characteristics, the user needs thoroughly research these qualities, these strict categories are only marginally effective in practice.

It is helpful to think about an example in order to completely understand these concepts. Consider creating an airbag system for a brand-new car model. In this scenario, even a minor timing mistake that causes the airbag to deploy too early or too late could have terrible effects and result in harm. Therefore, a hard real-time system is required; as the system designer, you need to have the certainty that no individual process will exceed specific temporal constraints. On the other hand, if you were to create a mobile phone that could receive streaming video, even while it is generally vital to keep up with the video stream, it might be alright to periodically lose a small bit of data. A soft real-time operating system might be sufficient for this application.