Using Windows NT for Real-Time Applications: Experimental Observations and Recommendations

Windows NT was not designed as a real-time operating system, but market forces and the acceptance of NT in industrial applications have generated a need for achieving real-time functionality with NT. As its use for real-time applications proliferates, based on an experimental evaluation of NT, we quantitatively characterize the obstacles placed by NT. As a result of these observations, we provide a set of recommendations for users to consider while building real-time applications on NT. These are validated by the use of NT for a prototype application involving real-time control that includes multimedia information processing. The results of the above study should provide system designers with guidelines, as well as insight, into the design of an architecture based on NT for supporting applications with components having real-time constraints.