Book Image

The Complete Edition - Software Engineering for Real-Time Systems

By : Jim Cooling
Book Image

The Complete Edition - Software Engineering for Real-Time Systems

By: Jim Cooling

Overview of this book

From air traffic control systems to network multimedia systems, real-time systems are everywhere. The correctness of the real-time system depends on the physical instant and the logical results of the computations. This book provides an elaborate introduction to software engineering for real-time systems, including a range of activities and methods required to produce a great real-time system. The book kicks off by describing real-time systems, their applications, and their impact on software design. You will learn the concepts of software and program design, as well as the different types of programming, software errors, and software life cycles, and how a multitasking structure benefits a system design. Moving ahead, you will learn why diagrams and diagramming plays a critical role in the software development process. You will practice documenting code-related work using Unified Modeling Language (UML), and analyze and test source code in both host and target systems to understand why performance is a key design-driver in applications. Next, you will develop a design strategy to overcome critical and fault-tolerant systems, and learn the importance of documentation in system design. By the end of this book, you will have sound knowledge and skills for developing real-time embedded systems.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Preface
15
Glossary of terms

11.6 Software Debugging in the Target – Hardware-Based Methods

11.6.1 Introduction

Most of the tools described in this section were originally designed to tackle hardware problems in microprocessors. Similar items had previously been developed for minis and mainframes, but they were not widely applied by computer users. The real-time microcomputer market is entirely different. Here, equipment and system manufacturers predominate, not computer companies. Many, many users, operating in diverse fields, need to get microprocessor systems running correctly and delivered on time. And to do this, they need to have the right tools for the job.

With time, there has been a convergence of hardware and software test methods. As microprocessor software became more complex, many hardware-based tools were adapted for use as software analyzers. Some problems just could not be resolved without using hardware aids. And the difficulties were compounded by the almost exclusive use of assembly...