Hard real-time systems required to complete a critical task within a guaranteed amount of time. Soft real-time computing requires that critical processes receive priority over less fortunate ones.
Flag is a flip-flop used to store the information about the status of a processor and the status of the insturction executed most recently.
A software or hardware mark that signals a particular condition or status. A flag is like a switch that can be either on or off. The flag said to be set when it is turned on.