Advantages of Soft Real-Time Systems.
One of the advantages of a soft real-time system is where critical tasks that are supposed to happen in real-time are given priority over other tasks that are to be completed and the system retains that priority until the task completes (Furr, 2009). Real-time systems employ the use of priority inheritance whereby a high priority task is blocked by a lower priority task. The system then raises the priority of the lower task temporarily (Furr, 2009). Soft real-time systems ensure that there is maximum consumption of resources as they have to ensure that they produce more output by using all the resources as they have to ensure that all critical tasks have to be completed within the required time (Furr, 2009). Soft real-time systems have to ensure that there is little or no downtime during the completion of critical tasks.
Advantages of Hard Real-Time Systems
Hard real-time systems are advantageous in that they have to operate within the confines of a strict deadline. This makes it possible to conduct mission-critical operations within the required time constraints which lead to tasks being completed on the time that has been allotted to them if not then this will be considered as a failure (Cheng, 2002). Components included in devices such as pacemakers is an example of a hard-real-time system which has to keep the heart beating at fast or slower rates.
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Disadvantages of Soft-Real-Time Systems
The drawbacks of soft real-time systems are that only limited tasks can run at the same time. The other disadvantage with these systems is that they have to run very few applications so as to avoid errors or when in they are running multiple applications, some other tasks have to wait for an unspecified amount of time (Cheng, 2002). Running only a prioritized task at a single time utilizes heavy system resources which makes many soft real-time systems expensive which is not good in both the short-term and the long-term (Cheng, 2002). Other critical tasks they may need to be completed in due time cannot be completed or prioritized by the system as its only relying on a single task to be completed. The single task being worked on is not measured, and this affects the efficiency of the whole system (Cheng, 2002). Soft real-time systems have low multi-tasking capabilities because the system can only run very few tasks, the system, therefore, stays focused on these tasks until they are complete before embarking on the pending tasks.
Disadvantages of Hard Real-Time Systems
One of the disadvantages of a hard real-time system is that it utilizes a lot of system resources in processing a single task (Kopetz, 2011). Hard real-time systems are also expensive depending on the type of resources that they need to work on. In order to maintain the accuracy of the running tasks or programs, hard real-time systems may not get the time to prioritize or process low priority tasks. (Kopetz, 2011) This means that any task that falls below a certain level may never be recognized by the system as high priority. There is little or no thread priority as there is less switching of tasks in hard real-time systems (Kopetz, 2011).
Conclusion
The most challenging part of the design of Real-Time Systems is that they have to interact with real-world entities and this can get really complex at the time . Real-Time systems despite their complications they are designed to meet specific time constraints or deadlines. Real Time systems are mainly designed and used for automated systems such as advanced flight control systems where processes have to be completed within a specified amount of time, or the entire system will fail. Real-time applications will always consist of both soft and hard components ( Event Helix, n.d.). Hard real-time systems need to have the capacity to not only detect failures but also be able to mitigate these failures so as to prevent complete system failures or malfunctions.
Real-Time systems can be used to make complex applications reliable and predictable which many at times gives the system precise control over the timing and execution of processes. Challenges might be experienced in choosing the right real-time system in which one has to consider the underlying architecture of the real-time system or its support from standard APIs, protocol stacks such as IPsec, IPV4, and IPV6 as well as scheduling algorithms. In the real world, real-time systems bring about enhanced functionality, reliability and support mission-critical process.
References
Buttazo, G. (2011). Hard Real-Time Computing Systems: Predictable Scheduling Algorithms and Applications . New York: Springer.
Cheng, A. (2002). Real-Time Systems: Scheduling, Analysis, and Verification . New Jersey: Wiley-Interscience.
Event Helix. (n.d.). Issues in Real-time System Design. Event Helix. Retrieved from https://www.eventhelix.com/RealtimeMantra/IssuesInRealtimeSystemDesign.htm#.WiL2mDdRWMo .
Furr, S. (2005). What is real-time and why do I need it? Military Embedded Systems.
Kopetz, H. (2011). Real-Time Systems: Design Principles for Distributed Embedded Applications. New York: Springer.
