I didn't make up the terminology. It was already in common use at least thirty years ago when I was actively working in that domain. To simplify, it's basically about whether a missed deadline is considered fatal or recoverable. That difference leads to very different design choices. Perhaps some kinds of video software is hard real-time by that definition, but for sure a lot of it isn't. I'd apologize, but it was never meant to be pejorative in the first place and being on one side of the line is cause for neither pride nor shame. They're just different kinds of systems.
What percentage of the market is A/V build to actual hard real-time standards, and not expected to run on devices that can't provide it (so no PCs with normal OSes, no smartphones)? For the vast majority, soft real-time is fine, since an occasional deadline-miss results in minor inconvenience, not property damage, injury or death.
I assume some dedicated devices are more or less hard real time, due to running way simpler software stacks on dedicated hardware.
I take it that scarcely anyone here has written software for video switchers, routers, DVEs, linear editors, audio mixers, glue products, master control systems, character generators, etc. etc. Missing a RT schedule rarely results in death, but you'd think so given the attitude from the customer. That's a silly definition for it.
There's a whole world out there of hard real time, the world is not simply made up of streaming video and cell phones.
The cool thing on HN is you can get down voted for simply making that observation. It's a sign of the times I'm afraid.
>For the vast majority, soft real-time is fine, since an occasional deadline-miss results in minor inconvenience, not property damage, injury or death.
A "minor inconvenience" like a recording session going wrong, a live show with stuttering audio, skipped frames in a live TV show, and so on?
notacoward|6 years ago
detaro|6 years ago
I assume some dedicated devices are more or less hard real time, due to running way simpler software stacks on dedicated hardware.
PorterDuff|6 years ago
There's a whole world out there of hard real time, the world is not simply made up of streaming video and cell phones.
The cool thing on HN is you can get down voted for simply making that observation. It's a sign of the times I'm afraid.
coldtea|6 years ago
A "minor inconvenience" like a recording session going wrong, a live show with stuttering audio, skipped frames in a live TV show, and so on?