Abstract: In real-time computing the accurate characterization of the performance and determinism that a particular real-time operating system/hardware combination can provide for real-time applications is essential. This issue is not properly addressed by existing performance metrics mainly due to the lack of completeness and generalization. In this paper we present a set of comprehensive, easy-to-implement and useful metrics covering three basic real-time operating system features: response to external events, intertask synchronization and resource sharing, and intertask data transferring. The evaluation of real-time operating systems using a set of fine-grained metrics is fundamental to guarantee that we can reach the required determinism in real-world applications.