Real Time Processing

Real Time Processing

Real time processing is usually found in systems which use computer control. Real time processing has to be programmed very carefully to ensure that no input events are missed. For example, a traffic light system is a real-time system but it only needs to process data relatively slowly. On the other hand, controlling a car engine has to deal with input events happening every thousandth of a second so a very fast computer is needed to do this -but both the traffic-light and the car engine computers are carrying out 'real-time' processing.

Examples:

Traffic lights
Heart rate monitoring
Aircraft control
Computer games