Exactly When Do You Need an RTOS?

Together, the speed of today s high-performance processors and realtime patches for general-purpose OSs appear to have re-opened the question of whether embedded systems still need an RTOS. The answer hasn t changed: the guarantees only a true RTOS can offer on relatively low-end processors mean that these OSs are here to stay in embedded environments.

07/19/12 Download

Paul Leroux paull@qnx.com

Paul Leroux

Paul Leroux is an award-winning writer, technology analyst, and public relations manager. He has been with QNX Software Systems for more than 20 years, where he is particularly valued for his knowledge of the embedded industry and for his ability to explain complex technical issues to both specialists and non-specialists. Leroux maintains the blog On Q, which he describes as "a personal mashup of QNX, cars, embedded systems, M2M, and photography." When he is not writing whitepapers or blogging, Leroux is an avid snowshoer and wildlife photographer. He holds a B.A. and an M.A., both from Concordia University in Montreal.

Romain Saha rsaha@qnx.com

Romain Saha

Romain Saha is Segment Manager at QNX, which he joined in 2003. Before joining QNX, Romain held positions of increasing responsibility in product management and product marketing at MOSAID Technologies and AIT Corporation. While at MOSAID he served as co-chair of the Network Processing Forum's Lookaside Task Group, whose mandate is to promote interoperability between network processors and co-processors, including ternary Content Addressable Memories (CAMs). When he is not at QNX, Romain may be found with his guitar and his band, the Curbside Insomniacs. He holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry and a B.Comm, both from Carleton Univesity.