Linux in itself is not real time capable. With the additional PREEMPT_RT patch it gains real-time capabilities. The key point of the PREEMPT_RT patch is to minimize the amount of kernel code that is non-preemptible, while also minimizing the amount of code that must be changed in order to provide this added preemptibility. In particular, critical sections, interrupt handlers, and interrupt-disable code sequences are normally preemptible. The PREEMPT_RT patch leverages the SMP capabilities of the Linux kernel to add this extra preemptibility without requiring a complete kernel rewrite.
