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This website was initially managed by the Realtime Linux Foundation, Inc. and later by the Open Source Automation Development Lab (OSADL) eG. It was used, among other, to organize the Realtime Linux Workshops from 1999 to 2017. The goal of these workshops was to bring together specialists from around the world to exchange ideas on how to extend the general-purpose Linux kernel to make it suitable for use in a real-time operating system, for example to control machines. For a long time, only a few enthusiasts believed that something like this was even possible. In November 2024, finally, the impossible happened: Thomas Gleixner, important contributor and maintainer of the real-time Linux project, delivered the pull request to enable real-time capabilities (x86, AArch64, RISC-V architectures) of the mainline Linux kernel to Linus Torvalds (LWN article). By the way, if you don't believe that the Linux kernel really can be configured to handle real-time requests in real time, visit the "OSADL QA Farm on Real-time of Mainline Linux". More than 200 highly diverse systems are undergoing long-term testing and benchmarking there and prove that the real-time properties of the Linux kernel can stand up to any comparison with traditional RTOS kernels. But even after the milestone of the long awaited merge of the previous off-tree patches into the mainline Linux kernel, work continues on the various real-time construction sites in the kernel. This includes not only maintenance, but also the implementation of important missing features. Currently, not all architectures are supported (among others, the mainline kernel still lacks support for ARM 32-bit and PowerPC). In addition, it is still an open issue to optimize accelerated graphics for realtime. Nevertheless, a list of topics to be addressed in the coming years was created in close coordination with the Linux Foundation and the participating project partners. Among other things, this involves the real-time processing of so-called Soft-IRQs, improvements in the network stack, the prioritization of work queues and the implementation of further missing functions. Funding of the project continues to be provided by the Linux Foundation's RTL project, which has been handling fundraising, project coordination and management for some time now. Of course, OSADL, together with other companies and organizations, will remain a Premier Member of the RTL project – thus OSADL members will continue to contribute to the progress of the project with their membership fees. |