DETERMINISTICALLY HANDLING ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS IN A TIME TRIGGERED SYSTEM

A method for operating a system that includes several subsystems may involve establishing one or more synchronized timelines for the system; allocating timeslots within each of the timelines for operation of one or more devices in the system; detecting an input event asynchronously to the timeline; generating a timestamp indicative of the time at which the input event is detected relative to the timeline; performing a processing task in response to the input event during a time slot allocated to the processing task; and inhibiting generation of an output event until a second time relative to the timelines. Performing the processing task may generate data representative of the output event as well as data representative of the second time. The second time may be a pre-determined time interval after the input event detection time.