5 Reasons Why You Need an RTOS You may have heard the term “real-time” to describe an operating system for machine control and automation. RTOS or a Real-Time Operating System is a software program that rapidly switches between processes and programming threads to give out an impression that multiple programs are being executed simultaneously. But the use of an RTOS is a popular topic of debate among developers as a bare-metal scheduler is an alternative to a real-time operating system to get RTOSequivalent behavior. For beginners, RTOS is an ideal choice as it gives ease of scheduling and system integration for machine control and industrial automation. Here’re five popular reasons why developers need an RTOS to start with machine control demand in the IoT era: Concurrency In industrial applications where developers need to give an impression that multiple tasks are executing simultaneously, the use of an RTOS is the right choice. With the ease of scheduling, you can switch between tasks based on priorities and events. Concurrency and multitasking are the key features of an RTOS that give it an edge over other software components such as a bare-metal system. Synchronization tool A bare-metal scheduler lacks synchronization which is a default tool in a real-time operating system. An RTOS has Mutexes and Semaphores to protect shared resources and synchronize tasks and message queues respectively for data transfer. So, for developers who need synchronization while executing multiple tasks and data processing, an RTOS is an ideal choice for them. Pre-emption Priority-based task scheduling is the key feature of a real-time operating system and the main reason why many embedded developers prefer RTOS over bare-metal schedulers. It is the ability to temporarily suspend a lower-priority task to execute a high-priority task to achieve system efficiency and productivity in time. If developers want to interrupt tasks and prioritize tasks for machine control and automation, choosing RTOS is a wise decision. It creates ease of scheduling to execute multiple tasks based on priorities and events. Third-party software If an application requires you to use third-party software for process execution, then the use of a real-time operating system is the right decision. Integrating third-party software is the biggest challenge that many developers face in an embedded system. An RTOS is compatible with most of the third-party software used for system integrations, and developers can use plug-and-play within the system for third-party software integration. It drastically accelerates the software development and integration process to save time and effort. Ease of use Developers can use RTOS systems nearly with every microcontroller available today for system integration and process execution. It is very easy to create a rapid prototype or build a complex system using an RTOS system in comparison to other systems. Creating tasks, priority-based scheduling, and utilizing synchronization tools is very easy and powerful in an RTOS environment.
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