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

11.9 Testing Multitasking Software

11.9.1 Basic Issues

Generally, testing multitasking software involves both debugging and performance analysis. However, a key point is that it is concerned with the debugging of completed, executing software within a target environment.

What distinguishes conventionally written microprocessor programs from multitasking software? The answer is that multitasking designs are fundamentally built up as a number of cooperating tasks that run concurrently. Some are interrupt-driven. Some need to respond to interrupt- or non-interrupt-driven asynchronous external events. Data and signals have to be transferred between tasks, and task execution must be carefully synchronized. And for embedded systems, this must be done in a predictable and timely manner. Therefore, a multitasking debugger must not only provide all the features discussed so far; it should also have extra facilities to handle the particular requirements of real-time multitasking systems...