I'm fairly new to programming and even newer to hardware, and have a question regarding RTOS. I'm working on a project involving the mbed LPC 1768 chip as part of a board with several other components, one of which is a high-speed timer. Through the mbed.org compiler, I'm able to program/control these parts. I've been told/read/heard that for my type of application, an RTOS should be implemented in the compiler to manage the board functions. I've also been told/read/heard that this is unnecessary and may be causing undue errors in my data.

So my question is, does anyone have any thoughts, suggestions, comments, etc as to the use and effectiveness of an RTOS for circuits for high-speed timing?

Thanks!

[reposted from "Hello World"]

Maybe a little clarification on my part?

I'm specifically trying to figure out the advantages to using RTOS over software interrupts? What I think I've figured out is an RTOS will give me access to serial comm and whatnot on the mbed board, which I need to connect to other hardware components. From what I've read thus far, I wouldn't have that capability without RTOS...however, with the mbed libraries, don't I already have serial access?

Hi, It is not at all necessary to use an RTOS. You'd not use an RTOS & still be able to manage the on-chip resources smartly. RTOS is an aid of utilising the CPU in a most efficient manner by allowing the work (read thread) that needs the CPU most, to run. An RTOS that has been ported to a given board/hardware will definitely be useful in that it will give you ready made drivers for timer, UART etc. However, do not be under the impression that using an RTOS will make things faster in your system. At the end of the day, an RTOS is akin to a library that a given application calls. Yes, you have access to almost all the peripherals via the mbed library, serial access included. If you be more specific about the details, maybe others can also help you out.

Happy mbedding !

Define "High speed"?