SUSE Linux Goes ‘Real Time’

SUSE Linux is often found on the edge of the enterprise as webservers, in branch offices on fileservers, and in the data center running heavy database loads—but not in “real time” financial services applications.

Things have just changed, with Novell’s release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time (SLERT).

SLERT enables the use of Linux for real-time applications such as online stock trading, process control and operation, and telecommunications. SLERT does this by adding real-time technology from Concurrent Computer Corporation to SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) 10.

SLERT offers support for 32-bit and 64-bit processor architectures, including AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon, predictable interrupt response time of less than 30 microseconds, high-resolution timer support for enhanced scheduling, user-level control of simultaneous multithreading, and processor shielding.

In tightly-coupled symmetric multiprocessing systems, SLERT allows individual CPUs to be shielded from interrupt processing, daemons, bottom halves, and other Linux tasks.

Processor shielding provides a highly deterministic execution environment where interrupt response and the time it takes to execute a transaction can be guaranteed.

Read the full story on Linux-Watch: SUSE Linux goes “real time”

Check out eWEEK.com’s for the latest open-source news, reviews and analysis.