'PC + Realtime + VM =?

This is a rather high-level "is this something worth investigating further" question as part of a programming project. Would this hypothetical be possible (and if so which OS would allow this)?

  1. Some sort of vaguely realtime OS running in a VM on a modern PC. Doesn't need to be like a full-blown RTOS, but I would like the ability to respond to events in say 5 microseconds.
  2. Direct hardware (e.g. I/O ports) access would make things easier
  3. Able to use the HPET or some other mechanism for high-precision event timing.
  4. Able to access the parallel port in EPP or ECP mode.

I have a few questions about the viability of such an arrangement.

  1. Is there a vaguely realtime PC OS that can use the HPET?
  2. Is it even possible to get ~5 us timing precision on a VM given the need to access the parallel port? I.e. would the VM driver for the parallel port itself preclude such tight timing?
operating-systemreal-timertos


Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source

Related Questions