[bmohlenhoff]

I certainly did describe a hard real-time system. It's nice to see that other people recognize the distinction.

Every time I see a post describing a "real time" system I always read into it hoping that what they are describing is a hard real time system, because they are neat, but they never are, probably because they are so difficult and expensive to build. Also I guess they aren't the most relevant type of system for the majority of people here, who are dealing (as you say) with customer-facing front ends.