Embedded Systems Conference, Booth # 134. San Jose, CA. September 28, 1999--Green Hills Software, the leading supplier of embedded software development tools, today announced a new graphical EventAnalyzer for the ThreadX(tm) real-time operating system. The new event analyzer, which works hand and hand with Green Hills' MULTI(r) Debugger, graphically displays both system and application events on an expandable timeline in real time.
"The EventAnalyzer picks up where conventional source-level debuggers leave off," remarked John Carbone, vice president of marketing at Green Hills Software. "The ability to log system and application events in real time without disrupting program execution gives programmers unprecedented visibility into system behavior and makes it much easier to understand complex real-time interactions."
The EventAnalyzer is tightly integrated with the MULTI Integrated Development Environment, which automates all aspects of embedded software development, including editing, compiling, program building, execution profiling, run-time error checking, source code control, and simulation. The heart of the MULTI environment is a ThreadX-aware source-level debugger with task- and system-level debug capability that provides unique insight into ThreadX operation on the target system. For example, the debugger can simultaneously display multiple ThreadX tasks ("threads"), including the thread roster, system objects, stack usage, semaphore usage and status, and a variety of other thread- and system-specific information.
The MULTI EventAnalyzer builds on the baseline debug capabilities of the MULTI source-level debugger, making it easier for programmers to decipher complex real-time interactions. The EventAnalyzer GUI operates like a high-level logic analyzer, displaying all context switches, ThreadX API calls, and interrupts in a time-relative manner using intuitive ICONs. The EventAnalyzer also provides versatile navigation capabilities that allow programmers to zoom in and out of the timeline to obtain greater detail about particular event sequences.
The EventAnalyzer logs events on the target system and uploads them to the host GUI for display in real time with minimal target intrusion, typically about 2 usec per event. Programmers have full control over logging parameters such as when and which events are logged, and the size of event log buffers. They can also direct the EventAnalyzer to log user-defined events by inserting API calls into their application code. This makes it easy for programmers to track important data, such as the values of program variables as they change in real-time during application execution.
The ThreadX RTOS is the most technically advanced real-time multitasking solution on the market today. Combining a picokernel design with fast timers and a high-speed preemption-threshold mechanism, ThreadX features a context switching time of less than two microseconds on a 40-MHz PowerPC 860 processor. The ThreadX picokernel is also memory stingy, requiring just 5 kbytes for a minimum footprint.
MULTI and ThreadX are available from both Green Hills Software and Express Logic for a wide range of 32-bit microprocessors used in embedded development, including the PowerPC 821/860, 750, CPU32, ColdFire, MIPS, SH, 68K, M-CORE, ARM7TDMI, TriCore, and StrongARM processor families. Host/target connectivity options include a wide variety of BDM and JTAG OCD (On-Chip Debugging) solutions, EST's visionICE, HP's Emulation Probe, ARM's EmbeddedICE, and various ROM Monitors.
More on Green Hills
Incorporated in 1982, Green Hills Software, Inc., is a leading supplier of software development tools for 32- and 64-bit embedded systems. Green Hills offers a family of optimizing C, C++, Embedded C++, Ada 95, FORTRAN and Pascal compilers. The company's unique MULTI software development environment automates the compile-edit-build-debug cycle by integrating advanced facilities such as an RTOS-aware source-level debugger, performance profiler, program builder and version control system.
Green Hills Software's tools support all major 32-bit and 64-bit advanced microprocessor families and target environments, including instruction set simulators, ROM Monitors, commercial and home grown real-time operating systems (RTOS) and in-circuit emulators (ICE).
Green Hills Software is headquartered in Santa Barbara, CA., and has US offices in California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida. International headquarters are located in the United Kingdom, with offices in France, Germany, and the Netherlands. For sales information on Green Hills Software products, please call 1.805.965.6044 or email inquiries to sales@ghs.com.
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