Page 98 - The Art of Designing Embedded Systems

Real Time Means Right Now! 85

runs at the priority of the highest priority task that is blocked on the same
resource. This permits the normally less important task to complete. so it
can unlock the resource and allow the high-priority task to do its thing.
If you’re not using an RTOS in your embedded designs today, you
surely will be tomorrow. Get familiar with the concepts, as designing task-
ing code requires a somewhat different view-the time domain view-
than conventional procedural programming. Check out Jean LaBrosse’s
free uC/OS; the companion book is as good an introduction to using an
RTOS as you’re likely to find. See www.ucos-ii.com.
Improvements to these tools come almost daily. Keep on top of the
field to avoid the fate of the dinosaurs.