Editing Real-time operating system (section)

{{Short description|Computer operating system for applications with critical timing constraints}}
A '''real-time operating system''' ('''RTOS''') is an [[operating system]] (OS) for [[real-time computing]] applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. A RTOS is distinct from a [[time-sharing]] operating system, such as [[Unix]], which manages the sharing of system resources with a scheduler, data buffers, or fixed task prioritization in multitasking or multiprogramming environments. All operations must verifiably complete within given time and resource constraints or else [[fail safe]]. Real-time operating systems are [[Event-driven programming|event-driven]] and [[Preemption (computing)|preemptive]], meaning the OS can monitor the relevant priority of competing tasks, and make changes to the task priority.