From the ‘time is real’ files:
Real Time Linux, that is Linux with a deterministic timing component for an action to occur, is big deal for a lot of industries (military among them). Red Hat first announced it’s production grade Real Time Linux platform, dubbed MRG back in 2007. Back then, Real Time enhancement were not part of the mainline Linux kernel, but that has changed over the years.
The MRG 2.1 release which debuted in January of 2012, moved the Real Time platform to the mainline Linux 3.0 kernel. With the new MRG 2.3 release announced this week, Red Hat is advancing to the newer 3.6 kernel.
The faster pace of kernel adoption does not occur in Red Hat’s flagship Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.x platform. The Linux 3.6 kernel was first released by Linus Torvalds in October of 2012, providing new disk and memory suspend capabilities.
According to Red Hat, the 3.6 kernel provides new hardware enablement, improved drivers, enhanced security and microsecond determinism.
Additionally the MRG platform is now getting a tech preview of the Precision Time Protocol(PTP). PTP provides improved accuracy over what is available in the commonly used NTP.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.