Tornado is an open, interactive cross-development environment and toolkit that consists of three integrated components: the Tornado tool suite, a set of powerful tools and utilities that reside on both the host and target; VxWorks, a powerful, scalable real-time operating system that executes on the target processor; and a full range of host/target communications options, including Ethernet, serial line, BDM, ICE, and ROM emulator.

Green Hills' MULTI, together with the company's family of optimizing compilers, provide a fully integrated real-time software development environment for Tornado-based applications that encompasses source-level debugging, window-oriented editing, automated program building, execution profiling, and project/version control. Applications developed under MULTI run on the target under the VxWorks operating system, which features real-time multitasking with pre-emptive and round-robin scheduling. MULTI interacts with VxWorks-based target applications via Tornado's host-based target server. The target server provides services such as a linking loader, task-specific and system-wide breakpoints, and asynchronous event notification, while requiring only a minimally-sized target support agent.

In the past, MULTI communicated directly with the VxWorks target via remote procedure calls. The new Tornado implementation decouples MULTI from the target, thereby enhancing portability and connection flexibility. It also enables MULTI to be used with a much smaller target image by eliminating the need for a target-based symbol table, object module loader, shell, and networking facilities.

Said Green Hills president Dan O'Dowd, "VxWorks has always provided a bedrock run-time environment for MULTI application developers. With Tornado, we've achieved a much higher level of integration that provides a broader range of host connections and enables us to work with a run smaller target system."

Added Dave Larrimore, Wind River's VP of Marketing "Our goal in developing Tornado was to provide an open architecture that would encourage tool suppliers to integrate their products. We're pleased to have Green Hills on board with their MULTI Development Environment and family of optimizing compilers."

The heart of the MULTI environment is a VxWorks-aware source-level debugger that features process- and system-level debug capability. The debugger supports mixed assembly and high-level language (Ada, C, C++, and FORTRAN) formats, includes a language-sensitive expression evaluator, and provides special support for C++ (such as a Class Browser, object display and template debug capability) and X-Windows debugging.

The MULTI debugger is fully RTOS aware, which enables designers to debug and tune their applications at a task level. With the MULTI debugger, designers start and stop tasks, set task-specific breakpoints, and monitor OS resources like buffers, queues, and streams. Programmers can also debug new tasks as they are spawned and watch processes as they communicate through pipes, semaphores, etc.

The MULTI debugger provides a separate window for each process. Within each window, programmers can independently set conditional and temporary breakpoints, single step, and examine local and global variables. Complex expressions and structured elements such as arrays and records can also be displayed. The debugger recognizes pointers and automatically displays the objects that they reference. It also displays a stack trace that simplifies the analysis of hierarchical program structure.

MULTI's run-time error checker detects memory errors and common program faults such as array-out-of-bounds, storing vales into variables or bit fields that are too small to hold them, and attempting to access unallocated memory. MULTI's profiler helps programmers identify hot spots by providing program run-time data on a function by function and line by line basis.

MULTI's windowing editor that features scroll bars, pull-down menus, and buttons for common commands. The editor is fully configurable, enabling users to change key bindings and alter objects (such as scroll bars) behavior based on their application requirements. Programmers can also substitute their own editor.

MULTI's Project Control System simplifies the design of large projects by providing automated build tools that eliminate the need for a make expert. MULTI's Version Control System augments the build tools by simplifying the management of revision levels and multiple project branches of project (i.e., developing two versions of software at the same time). MULTI also allows seamless introduction of other configuration management systems.

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