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A typical example could be a computer-controlled braking system in a car. If the driver can stop a car before it hits a wall, the operation was in real-time; if the car hits the wall it was not. Many machines require real-time controller s to avoid " instability", which could lead to the accidental damage or destruction of the system, people, or objects.

Some real-time systems do not have such a constraint on delay as long as input data can be processed rapidly enough so that no backlog occurs. In a real-time Digital signal processing system, the analyzed (input) and/or generated (output) samples (whether they are grouped together in large segments or processed individually) can be processed (or generated) continuously in the time it takes to input and/or output the same set of samples independent of the processing delay. Consider an audio DSP example: if a process requires 2.01 seconds to analyze or process 2.00 seconds of sound, it is not real-time. If it takes 1.99 seconds, it is (or can be made into) a real-time DSP process.

A common life example is that of standing in a line (or queue) waiting for the checkout in a grocery store. If the line asymtotically grows longer and longer without bound, the checkout process is not real-time. If the length of the line is bounded, customers are being "processed" and outputted as rapidly, on average, as they are being inputted and that process is real-time. The grocer might go out of business or must at least lose business if he/she cannot make his/her checkout process real-time (so it's fundamentally important that this process be real-time).

In the economy real-time-systems are information technologies, which provide real-time access to information or data. The ability of a companyA company in the broadest sense is an aggregation of people who stay together for a common purpose. Such usage includes people assembled for: commercial purposes organised as a type of business organization. See company (law); military purposes . See comp to process its data in real-time increases the competitiveness of the company. Real-time processing systems are new technologies and will improve during the next decades. Gartner forcasts a fast increase and use of these real-time systems.

See also

• Real-time computingReal-time computing is the subject of hardware and software systems which are subject to constraints in time. Some kinds of software, such as many chess-playing programs, are allowed as much time as needed to perform a computation such as the next chess m
• Real-time controlReal-time control is a popular term for a certain class of digital controllers. For effective digital control, it is critical that sample time be constant. Real-time control achieves nearly constant sample time. See also Control theory Real-time.
• Real-time operating systemA Real Time Operating System or RTOS is an operating system that has been developed for real-time applications. Typically used for embedded applications. Note that this type of operating system does not necessarily have high throughput — the specialized s
• Real-time video editingReal-time video editing is a system of editing video where it takes no longer to render a video than the length of that video clip itself. For example, after a 30 minute length of video is edited it needs to be rendered, and should the system take more th