It’s not as easy as it looks, fellas.

Occasionally on a forum, or during a chat, I see a question like “how do I get <something sounding like a real-time requirement> to work?” Having seen purveyors of “real-time” operating systems explain everything a developer needs to know about their tasking model in only a few simple bullet points, I know the frustration our embedded developers feel when they don’t get a clear, concise answer.

Recently, a Vista[1] “bug” was found where Windows Media Player affects network throughput rates. Windows Internal guru, and all-around nice guy, Mark Russinovich has written a blog article that clearly explains the bug and what’s going. I bring it up because his posting provides significant insight into the problems faced when trying to create a scheduler that “can do it all”.

- Jim
 

[1] Bug does not exist in XP or XPe