1.1 The problem
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-Realtime scheduling is all about determinism, a group has to be able to rely on
+Real-time scheduling is all about determinism, a group has to be able to rely on
the amount of bandwidth (eg. CPU time) being constant. In order to schedule
-multiple groups of realtime tasks, each group must be assigned a fixed portion
-of the CPU time available. Without a minimum guarantee a realtime group can
+multiple groups of real-time tasks, each group must be assigned a fixed portion
+of the CPU time available. Without a minimum guarantee a real-time group can
obviously fall short. A fuzzy upper limit is of no use since it cannot be
relied upon. Which leaves us with just the single fixed portion.
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CPU time is divided by means of specifying how much time can be spent running
-in a given period. We allocate this "run time" for each realtime group which
-the other realtime groups will not be permitted to use.
+in a given period. We allocate this "run time" for each real-time group which
+the other real-time groups will not be permitted to use.
-Any time not allocated to a realtime group will be used to run normal priority
+Any time not allocated to a real-time group will be used to run normal priority
tasks (SCHED_OTHER). Any allocated run time not used will also be picked up by
SCHED_OTHER.
-Let's consider an example: a frame fixed realtime renderer must deliver 25
+Let's consider an example: a frame fixed real-time renderer must deliver 25
frames a second, which yields a period of 0.04s per frame. Now say it will also
have to play some music and respond to input, leaving it with around 80% CPU
time dedicated for the graphics. We can then give this group a run time of 0.8
of 0.00015s.
The remaining CPU time will be used for user input and other tasks. Because
-realtime tasks have explicitly allocated the CPU time they need to perform
+real-time tasks have explicitly allocated the CPU time they need to perform
their tasks, buffer underruns in the graphics or audio can be eliminated.
NOTE: the above example is not fully implemented yet. We still
The scheduling period that is equivalent to 100% CPU bandwidth.
/proc/sys/kernel/sched_rt_runtime_us:
- A global limit on how much time realtime scheduling may use. This is always
+ A global limit on how much time real-time scheduling may use. This is always
less or equal to the period_us, as it denotes the time allocated from the
- period_us for the realtime tasks. Even without CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED enabled,
- this will limit time reserved to realtime processes. With
+ period_us for the real-time tasks. Even without CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED enabled,
+ this will limit time reserved to real-time processes. With
CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED=y it signifies the total bandwidth available to all
- realtime groups.
+ real-time groups.
* Time is specified in us because the interface is s32. This gives an
operating range from 1us to about 35 minutes.
The default values for sched_rt_period_us (1000000 or 1s) and
sched_rt_runtime_us (950000 or 0.95s). This gives 0.05s to be used by
SCHED_OTHER (non-RT tasks). These defaults were chosen so that a run-away
-realtime tasks will not lock up the machine but leave a little time to recover
+real-time tasks will not lock up the machine but leave a little time to recover
it. By setting runtime to -1 you'd get the old behaviour back.
By default all bandwidth is assigned to the root group and new groups get the
want to assign bandwidth to another group, reduce the root group's bandwidth
and assign some or all of the difference to another group.
-Realtime group scheduling means you have to assign a portion of total CPU
-bandwidth to the group before it will accept realtime tasks. Therefore you will
-not be able to run realtime tasks as any user other than root until you have
-done that, even if the user has the rights to run processes with realtime
+Real-time group scheduling means you have to assign a portion of total CPU
+bandwidth to the group before it will accept real-time tasks. Therefore you will
+not be able to run real-time tasks as any user other than root until you have
+done that, even if the user has the rights to run processes with real-time
priority!