Real time on Windows?

People tend to use the term "Real-time" differently. I get skeptical when I hear realtime and windows in one sentence. when defining real time as: a guarantee, that a calculation step is always made within a clear defined time period.

How much real time is matlab then when running on windows?

How does Matlab tell Windows not to interrupt the real time applikation it is running?

thx

Answer 1

[Jan Houska]

Real-Time Windows Target http://www.mathworks.com/products/rtwt is able to run Simulink models in real time as defined in your question. To achieve this, the model is first compiled to a real-time executable (using Simulink Coder). Then, the executable is being run by a real-time kernel at high priority levels, where the real-time kernel ensures that the executable always gets CPU when needed while ensuring that its execution is not interrupted by another Windows application or the operating system itself.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

You can set the process priority in the Task Manager (type control-shift-Esc) to "Realtime" - just right click on the process to get the menu. However I don't really recommend it since it won't pay attention to anything else. I don't even think it will pay attention if you click on some other icon on your desktop. I'd use it with caution in a very robustly written program. If your program does not have a good way to lower the priority or exit then you might have to reboot. I think it's safe to set the priority to "High".