Chapter 1, "Real-Time Programs," describes the important classes of real-time programs, emphasizing the different kinds of performance requirements they have.
Chapter 2, "Basic Features of the CHALLENGE and IRIX(TM) Architectures," contains an overview of how IRIX manages the resources of a Challenge or Onyx system for the benefit of normal, interactive UNIX applications; and points out how these methods often conflict with the needs of real-time programs. This chapter also touches on the operation of a multiprocessor array such as the POWERChallenge Array.
Chapter 3, "How IRIX(TM) and REACT/Pro(TM) Support RealTime Programs," gives an overview of the real-time features of IRIX. From these survey topics you can jump to the detailed topics that interest you most.
Chapter 4, "Managing Virtual Memory in a RealTime Program," covers the management of your virtual address space: locking it to real memory; mapping devices and files into it; and sharing segments of it between processes.
Chapter 5, "Managing Time and Time Intervals," covers the use of timers and clocks in the Challenge/Onyx architecture.
Chapter 6, "Controlling CPU Workload," describes how you can isolate a CPU and dedicate almost all of its cycles to your program's use.
Chapter 7, "Using the Frame Scheduler," describes the REACT/Pro Frame Scheduler, which gives you a simple, direct way to structure your real-time program as a group of cooperating processes, efficiently scheduled on one or more isolated CPUs.
Chapter 8, "Optimizing Disk I/O for a Real-Time Program," describes how to set up disk I/O to meet real-time constraints, including the use of asynchronous I/O and guaranteed-rate I/O.
Chapter 9, "Managing Device Interactions," summarizes the software interfaces to external hardware, including and user-level programming of external interrupts and VME and SCSI devices.