TRACE32 Supports PrKERNELv4

[Altera_Forum]

trace32 supports the uitron compliant real time operating system prkernelv4 

 Hofolding, April 2005 ELAUTERBACH, the leading manufacturer of microprocessor development tools, now supports the real-time operating system PrKERNELv4 with its TRACE32 Debugger tools. PrKERNELv4 from eSOL Co., Ltd. is implemented compliant to the uITRON4.0 specification. The PrKERNELv4 awareness is included in all new releases of the TRACE32 software for the Nios II family of microprocessors; other architectures will follow.  The PrKERNELv4 awareness is able to visualize all the RTOS objects. It provides separate windows for the display of tasks, event flags, semaphores etc. If the processor is capable of a dual-port access to the memory, these objects can be displayed non-intrusively, while the application runs in real time. TRACE32 also supports the implementation of task related breakpoints. An example of this would be to set a breakpoint in shared code to halt only if a specific task hits it. A built-in stack coverage analysis allows a precise measurement of the stack usage of each task.  TRACE32 Real time traces are able to provide selective recording of the bus cycles. This data can then be used to examine the task switches and display the results graphically. A performance analyzer automatically evaluates task and function run times. Statistic tables give accurate information about the system usage. The JTAG tools can provide dynamic performance analysis without using the real time trace but this is slightly intrusive. TRACE32 periodically detects the running tasks and creates a graph of the task usage by the target. New pull-down menus, designed for the PrKERNELv4 awareness, allow an easy access to the new functionality.  PrKERNELv4 and the kernel awareness can be run in the TRACE32 Instruction Set Simulator, which is available, free of charge, from the Lauterbach website. This means the TRACE32 simulator can be used for a first prototyping, even before any hardware becomes available.  All the features that the TRACE32 Debugger provides for the PrKERNELv4 RTOS are implemented without any changes to the application or kernel. There are no patches, hooks or additional instrumentation to the code. Its 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.  Details of the PrKERNELv4 awareness features in TRACE32 are available at Lauterbach's home page www.lauterbach.com.