The emergence of new soft real-time applications such as DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) and other multimedia devices has caused an explosion in the number of embedded real-time systems in use and development. Many engineers working on these emergent products could use a practical and in depth primer on how to apply real-time theory to get products to market quicker, with fewer problems, and better performance. Real-Time Embedded Systems and Components introduces practicing engineers and advanced students of engineering to real-time theory, function, and tools applied to embedded applications. The first portion of the book provides in-depth background on the origins of real-time theory including rate monotonic and dynamic scheduling. From there it explores the use of rate monotonic theory for hard real-time applications commonly used in aircraft flight systems, satellites, telecommunications, and medical systems. Engineers also learn about dynamic scheduling for use in soft real-time applications such as video on demand, VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), and video gaming. Sample code is presented and analyzed based upon Linux and VxWorks operating systems running on a standard Intel architecture PC. Finally, readers will be able to build working robotics, video, machine vision, or VoIP projects using low-cost resources and approaches to gain hands on real-time application experience. Real-Time Embedded Systems and Components is the one single text that provides an in-depth introduction to the theory along with real world examples of how to apply it.