Here I found an interesting example of
a component-based, hard realtime design: "A Component Framework for
Java-based Real-time Embedded Systems". The paper contains many issues that
Orocos has also looked at, implemented, rejected, ...
It could be a stimulating read and source for "Orocos 2.0" discussions! :-)

This paper is also going to be presented at the "Middleware 2008"
conference in Leuven, Dec 1-5.

I think at least one of our local Orocos developers should be there, since
the topic of "middleware" affects our project a lot :-) (Although the
abovementioned paper is about the only one that attracts my direct
interest...)

Herman