Preface of special issue on Artificial Intelligence for time-critical computing systems

Time-critical computing systems are essential for industries requiring precise timing, such as automotive and aerospace. With technological advances in integrated circuits, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), these systems have rapidly expanded into diverse areas including smart grids, e-health, environmental monitoring, and autonomous vehicles. This expansion not only broadens their application scope but also complicates their design and operation, raising issues of efficiency, reliability, security, and privacy. The goal of this special issue aims to investigate the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in enhancing the performance, design, monitoring, and maintenance of time-critical computing systems. It aims to demonstrate how AI can overcome existing limitations in time-critical computing systems and applications, and to advance the state of the art in AI techniques for these systems.