SFWRENG 4AA4 Study Guide - Final Guide: Critical System, Process Control, Clock Skew

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Software Engineering
• Course: SFWRENG 4AA4
• Professor: Doug Down

Document Summary

System: combination of components/pieces of equipment integrated to perform a specific function. Response time: time between stimulus and corresponding response. Real time system: system that must satisfy explicit response time constraints or risk severe consequences including failure. Hard rts: failure to meet a single deadline may lead to catastrophic system failure. Soft rts: performance degraded but not destroyed by failure to meet response time constraints. Firm rts: missing few deadlines will not lead to failure but missing more than a few may lead to complete system failure. Safety critical system: hard rts whose failure may cause injury or death to human beings. Process control systems: hard rts, may be firm control of power plants rolling mills, automation, consumer products. Safety critical systems: nuclear power plant monitoring system, vehicle systems, traffic control. Cache memory: used for faster access time to receive instructions (does not work in rts)