Component-based software engineering (CBSE) and the use of (de-facto) standard component models have gained popularity in recent years, particularly in the development of desktop and server-side software. This paper presents a motivation for applying CBSE to real-time systems and discusses the consequences of adopting a software component model in the development of such systems. Specifically, the consequences of adopting Microsoft's COM, DCOM, and .NET models are analyzed. The most important aspects of these models are discussed in an incremental fashion. The analysis considers both real-time systems in general, and a real-life industrial control system where some aspects the COM model have been adopted. It is concluded that adopting these models makes it possible to meet real-time requirements, but that some overhead must be expected and that special precautions may have to be taken to prevent loss of real-time predictability.