Guest Editors' Introduction: Special Issue on Time-Critical Systems Design

Time-critical computing systems are required to meet real-time deadlines. Currently, there is widespread popularity and adoption of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and cyber-physical systems, where the computing systems need to continuously interact with the physical environment. Often, this interaction demands precise timing guarantees. Examples of such time-critical systems range from control systems to smart drones, medical devices, autonomous vehicles, robots, industrial IoT, and smart grid. The software execution time in response to external stimuli in such systems is no longer a performance metric, but instead an issue of functional correctness. However, modern computing platforms with their complex system stack, including the processor architecture, the operating system, and the sophisticated programming language features, are all geared toward improving performance at the cost of timing predictability. Thus, designing systems that can provide predictable timing remains a conundrum. © 2013 IEEE.