A cyclic executive is an alternative to a real-time operating system. It is a form of cooperative multitasking, in which there is only one task. The sole task is typically realized as an infinite loop in main, e.g. in C. The outer 100 ms cycle is called the major cycle. In this case, there is also an inner minor cycle of 50 ms. In this first example the outer versus inner cycles aren't obvious. We can use a counting mechanism to clarify the major and minor cycles.