Real-Time Systems Design and Analysis Tools for the Practitioner

An important resource, this book offers an introductory text and overview of real-time systems: systems where timeliness is a crucial part of the correctness of the system. The book contains a pragmatic overview of key topics (computer architecture and organization, operating systems, software engineering, programming languages, and compiler theory) from the perspective of the real-time systems designer. The book is organized into chapters that are essentially self-contained. Thus, the material can be rearranged or omitted depending on the background and interests of the audience or instructor. Each chapter contains both easy and more challenging exercises that stimulate the reader to confront actual problems.

Phillip A. Laplante, PhD, PE, is Professor of Software Engineering at Penn State, where he specializes in software and systems engineering, project management, and software testing and security. Dr. Laplante spent several years as a software engineer and project manager working on avionics, computer-aided design, and software test systems. He has authored of edited twenty-seven books and has published more than 200 scholarly articles. Seppo J. Ovaska, DSc, is Professor of Industrial Electronics at Aalto University, Finland. He has served as a visiting scholar at Utah State University, Virginia Tech, and the University of Passau, Germany, and has published more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals. Prior to his academic career, Dr. Ovaska developed control systems for high-rise elevators; those contributions led to nine international patents.