5.3 Real-Time Linux and Its Application Programming Interface

In 2006, Linus Torvalds, the creator and maintainer of the Linux kernel, famously said of the idea of using the Linux kernel for real-time computing:

Controlling a laser with Linux is crazy, but everyone in this room is crazy in his own way. So if you want to use Linux to control an industrial welding laser, I have no problem with your using PREEMPT_RT. Gleixner (2010)

The PREEMPT_RT patch, the key to the Real-Time Linux project Foundation (2022), hardens the real-time performance of the main Linux kernel, which was not developed with real-time applications in mind. Since 2019, aspects of the PREEMPT_RT patch have been accepted to the Linux kernel Foundation (2022). The development of the project has been partly supported by industry stakeholders …