'<h2 class=abstract>Tutorial overview: Real-time programming in Java</h2><p class=abstract>Some of Java&acute;s defining characteristics -- such as Object-Oriented Programming, dynamic loading, and garbage collection -- although advantages in general, have proved to be obstacles to the language&acute;s spread in the domain of real-time system development.<p class=abstract>A real-time program&acute;s time and space requirements must be predictable, but Java&acute;s dynamic underpinnings interfere with that goal. Real-time garbage collection, despite some encouraging recent progress, is still more a research topic than a practical technology. And Java&acute;s loose semantics for thread scheduling make it difficult for a developer to ensure that periodic threads will meet their deadlines, and that priority inversions will be avoided.<p class=abstract>These problems, however, are not intractable, and since early 1999 two independent efforts have been underway to extend the Java platform so as to satisfy the requirements for real-time systems. One specification has been designed by the Real-Time for Java Experts Group (RTJEG) under the auspices of Sun Microsystems&acute; Java Community Process, and the other has been developed by the Real-Time Java Working Group (RTJWG) under the J-Consortium.<p class=abstract>This tutorial analyzes the Java platform (language, API, JVM) with respect to real-time support, compares and contrasts the two real-time Java specifications, and shows how to use the specifications to produce real-time programs.<p class=abstract>Topics include: <ul> <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> <p class=abstract> The role of OOP in real-time development <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> The kinds of Garbage Collection techniques that are most appropriate in a real-time program <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> The do&acute;s and don&acute;ts of thread programming, for both general and real-time applications <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> Which scheduling policies are most appropriate for priority inversion avoidance <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> How the JVM implementation is affected by real-time requirements <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> How to arrange memory management without garbage collection <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> How to program common idioms (periodic activities, timers, semaphores, buffers) <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> How to use the features for asynchronous thread coordination <p class=abstract><li class=abstract> How the RTJEG and RTJWG specifications compare with respect to execution-time predicability, expressibility, safety and performance </ul> <h2 class=abstract>Level</h2><p class=abstract> Intermediate <h2 class=abstract>Prerequisites</h2><p class=abstract>Familiarity with the main features of the Java language.'