Paul McKenney, IBM Linux Technology Center

Although the oft-used aphorism "real-time is not real-fast" makes a nice sound bite, it does not provide much guidance to developers. This paper will provide the background needed to make a considered design choice between "real time" (getting started as quickly as possible) and "real fast" (getting done quickly once started). In many ways, "real fast" and "real time" are Aesop's tortoise and hare, respectively. But in the real world of real time, sometimes the race goes to the tortoise and sometimes it goes to the hare, depending on the requirements as well as the details of the workload and the enclosing software environment.

[Full disclosure: a very similar paper appeared in OLS 2008.]