Indeed, and you'll probably also need a special-purpose RT OS stack (or have to write your own/go without). EDIT: I'd also add that this is such a niche[1] are

Indeed, and you'll probably also need a special-purpose RT OS stack (or have to write your own/go without). EDIT: I'd also add that this is such a niche[1] area of programming that expecting any mainstream language to meaningfully support it is... optimisitic and that mainstream languages shouldn't try to support it. (Soft real-time may be reasonable, but I believe that can be achieved with GC as demonstrated by the Azul JVM.) [1] Niche, but obviously important, but perhaps not lucrative enough for anything to displace C or perhaps Ada -- given that these industries tend to be extremely conservative. (I wonder if ATS is used, though. Can't claim it's pretty, but proof seems like it would be a good thing for these systems?)