PikeOS developers were already able to use TRACE32 from Lauterbach, a debugging capability that applies to a full range of items, from bootstrap code to interrupt routines and drivers. The PikeOS awareness provides easy access to PikeOS resources such as partitions, processes and threads. Because PikeOS is also a virtualization platform, it is important to be able to debug any application, whatever partition or type of partition (called Personality) this application belongs to.
The new version of Lauterbach’s Kernel awareness provides now the possibility to debug any thread of ELinOS, used as PikeOS Linux Personality, and in SMP mode if needed. The first implementation has been achieved on Freescale® Semiconductor’s i.MX6 series platform but other platforms will be available soon.
Performance analysis on PikeOS tasks and Linux processes can be performed, showing when and which task was running, how much time each task consumed and how often it was pre-empted. TRACE32 gathers all this information in real-time and non-intrusively, thus not affecting the customers application. To comply with the full MMU support of PikeOS, TRACE32 also includes full MMU support, so the user is able to debug several tasks in different PikeOS partitions concurrently, regardless which partition the CPU currently works on. Therefore, TRACE32 provides full access to the complete system at any time. In addition to debug ELinOS processes, the new implementation allows the developer to access the ELinOS kernel.
“We are very pleased by our collaboration with Lauterbach, “says Jacques Brygier, VP Marketing at SYSGO. “Combined with the use of the TRACE32 tool, the development of critical applications with PikeOS together with ELinOS applications is today easier to our customers who are more and more requesting this configuration.”
All features that the TRACE32 debugger provides for the PikeOS RTOS are implemented without any changes to the application or kernel. There are no patches, hooks or additional instrumentations of the code. It is part of Lauterbach’s philosophy to make TRACE32 debug exactly the same program code that will be incorporated into the finished product. This is the only way to guarantee, 100 percent, that the original application is tested and running correctly.
“We remain impressed by the scope of functionality of PikeOS, especially combined with ELinOS used as a GuestOS in an embedded virtualization platform,” says Rudolf Dienstbeck, from Lauterbach. “A very nice feature together with TRACE32 real-time trace is the performance analysis of PikeOS tasks, including the Linux processes. Developers will have a statistical analysis, and a flow chart of the task/process run times, which is a real plus to our customers.”
Details of the PikeOS awareness features in TRACE32 are available at Lauterbach’s home page w w w. lauterbach. com.
About Lauterbach
Lauterbach is a completely independent and privately held company and the world′s leading manufacturer of complete, modular microprocessor development tools with 35 years’ experience in the field of embedded designs. It is an international, well established company with blue chip customers in every corner of the globe and has a close working relationship with all semiconductor manufacturers. Besides the Headquarters in Hoehenkirchen, Germany, the company has its own branch offices in United Kingdom, Italy, France, Tunisia, on the East and West coasts of the United States, Japan and China. Highly qualified sales and support engineers are also available in many other countries.