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iSYSTEMTechBlog: Increase your Analyzers' Performance

Are you recording lots of data to get an insight in the real-time workings of your application? Does it slow down the overall performance of your PC?

Then you may consider following:

Analyzer recordings can be very large. The raw compressed recording itself can be several GB large, after decompression and analysis, the temporary data footprint can increase by a factor of 30-100.

Most of this data is kept on disk in the designated temporay folder. If this folder is located on a slow disk, the overall performance suffers.
If you have another disk with better performance available, set the environment variable ISYSTEM_TEMP to a folder on that disk.We also recommend to defragment this disk.

If you are still struggling with performance problems, consider that profiler and coverage analysis are parallelized. So these can take advantage of a multi-core PC to increase the overall processing performance.

We recommend following system configuration:

• 4-8 core CPU
• 8GB or more RAM
• 100GB free space on TEMP drive. The drive should be defragmented.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Special Function Register Enhancements

Since winIDEA 9.11.77 the Special Function Register (SFR) Window has been enhanced to show:

• the address for the SFR
• the bit position and size for sub-SFRs (in beside picture you see O for offset and S for size)
• a radix prefix for the SFR value (0x for hexadecimal, 0b for binary values).

What are Special Function Registers (SFRs)?
SFRs are special on-chip CPUs registers that control various functions of a microcontroller, e.g. stack pointer, program counter.

To open the SFR window in winIDEA, you select "Special Function Registers..." command from winIDEA's View menu or click on the SFR window icon in the view toolbar.

The SFR window organizes CPU registers hierarchically into groups and sub groups and registers and sub registers. A group is a collection of registers that serve a module on the CPU e.g. serial port, a register corresponds to a CPU's Special Function Register.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Profiler Configuration changes

Since winIDEA build 9.11.76 the configuration window of the profiler has completely changed.

• One major change is that there are no longer tabs for Code and Data Areas. Code and Data areas are now visible in the bottom half of the configuration window.
• If function profiling is enabled then all functions will be profiled if no functions are listed in the code areas list.
• There is now a leading check box for every function listed in the profiler data area. By clearing this check box profiler areas can be temporarily disabled. The new configuration will take effect in the next profiler session.
• Less frequently used options e.g. "Ignore functions which exit on entry" have been moved to "Advanced..." configuration.
• Tail-merge analysis is enabled by default now. It can be disabled/enabled in Profiler/Advanced options.
• If tail-merging is used, functions that are tail merge destinations (or stack killers) are now included implicitly but not shown if any of the explicitly specified functions use them.

 

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Floating Point compare Precision adjustable

Since winIDEA build 9.11.69 the precision of floating point comparisons is adjustable.

When would that affect you? Well, every time you calculate with floating point numbers...

A floating point number is represented in a computer by several significant digits used for the number and an exponent, both in binary format. A definite dezimal number e.g. 0,1 can have an indefinite periodic binary representation e.g. 0,0001100110011. In a computer only the first digits of that periodic number are stored which may lead to inaccurateness in calculations, e.g.  will 10*0,1 in a computer result in 1,0? Well, it depends on the implementation...

Modern computers have additional to the main CPU (e.g. using 64 bits) a floating point unit (FPU e.g. using 80 bits). Assume you assign x=y=1; and compare cos(x) == cos(y); It can happen that this comparison is not true if cos(x) has been buffered (in memory 64 bit and therefore rounded) while cos(y) has been processed directly from the FPU (80 bit and was not rounded).

To solve this dilemma you can set the tolerable error due to rounding in floating point arithmetic - the so called machine epsilon. When you calculate the absolute error of a floating point comparison, it must be smaller or equal to epsilon (float x, y;): 
(x-y)<=epsilon

Since winIDEA build 9.11.69 you can now set the value for Floating point compare precision in menu Debug/ Debug Options/ Symbols.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Profiler's professional Export Capabilities

winIDEA's profiler allows you to export your recorded data filtered by sophisticated patterns.

Beside you see the dialog for Profiler's Export.

After having specified a File name to export the data to, you set the export Format. Formats available are plain Text, XML, CSV and the so called Text1.
When you select Text1 format you can adjust the output format of many settings in the Options dialog (see screenshot below).

Scope defines the scope of data to export.
All Areas exports all areas.
Selection exports only areas currently selected in the profiler window.
Filter exports areas which match the specified filter wildcard pattern.
Only areas with recorded activity will be exported when "Export only active areas" is checked.

Time scope sets if the "entire session" or the selected range only  is exported.

In a multitasking environment specify the Context for which data is exported. This selection is only available if profiler session has recorded context switches.

In Information specify what type of data is exported. Statistics includes information like total time and percentage of time spent in the area, number of activations, etc. Timline exports time information e.g. for data time and value that was written and for functions time and state of activation. Data Object Mappings exports a mapping table for data objects e.g. task IDs.

Launch Associated Viewer tells the system to launch the viewer after export.

 

 

For detailed information on the Profiler export capabilities and examples see the Analyzer.pdf that is included in winIDEA's Technical Notes (Menu Help/ Technical Notes/ Analyzer.pdf).

iSYSTEMTechBlog: MPC5xxxx TLB write access Support

winIDEA supports since build 9.11.63 MPC5xxx TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer) write access. TLB entries can now be written via MemoryWrite functions (included in isystem.connect API set).

To access a specific TLB entry, the access address encodes the TLB index in bits 16-31 and the MAS register (MMU Assist Registers) in bits 0-15.

The TLB manipulation functions are provided via isystem.connect's CMPC5xxxController class.

Example:
import isystem.connect as ic

cmgr = ic.ConnectionMgr()
cmgr.connectMRU('')

# get MPC5xxx controller
MPCCtrl = ic.CMPC5xxxController(cmgr)

# get TLB 3
TLB = MPCCtrl.getTLB(3)

# change RPN to 0x40800000 physical
TLB.m_dwMAS3 = 0x40800000 | (TLB.m_dwMAS3 & 0xFFF)

# set TLB 3
MPCCtrl.setTLB(3, TLB)

 

New Blog for Release Information!

iSYSTEM just started a new blog (plus feed) for release information!

iSYSTEM will publish there:

• new release notes for winIDEA
• new release notes for testIDEA
• new documents

Stay informed and register now for iSYSTEM release information!

 

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Power Probe for Power Measurement

To help customers with power measurement iSYSTEM provides now a so called Power Probe!

As mentioned in last week's blog post the iC5000 I/O module allows now power measurement. But what do you do if your target's voltage and current exceed the input range of the I/O module?

Take iSYSTEM's Power Probe!

The Power Probe is a small board that is connected between the power supply and the target hardware. On the Power Probe you find two resistor blocks - one divider block for voltage and one shunt resistor block for current. If you need to scale down the voltage or current you just select the appropiate resistor by a jumper. 

And now you can connect the I/O module to measure the power consumption!

As mentioned in last week's blog post if you use divider resistors remember to specify in "Hardware/ Options/ IO" dialog a "Multiply" value and the Ohm value for the shunt resistor.

For more information see IOModule.pdf .

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Now Power Measurement with iC5000 IO Module

The iC5000 I/O module can now measure the power consumption of your target board! And in winIDEA's profiler you can view the uptake rate (current, power, voltage) !

 

Basically you will use on the I/O module port AIN0 for voltage measurement and port AIN1 for current measurement. Please select in winIDEA "Hardware/ Options/ IO" dialog the appropiate check box (in picture on the right).  
But before doing so please consider the input and output range of the I/O module. If your signal is higher than e.g. 5V, use a suitable resistor divider.

In winIDEA "Hardware/ Options/ IO" dialog you specify in "Analog IN" names for the incoming signals. If you use a divider resistor, ensure to set the correct "Multiply" value (in picture on the left).

For current measurement use a shunt resistor to protect the IO module. For correct measurements specify the Ohm value of the resistor (in picture on the right).

 

The actually measured values of current, power and voltage are shown in winIDEA's profiler over the period of time if you have configured the profiler to profile AUX signals too (profiler configuration dialog, section "Profile", check AUX box) . 

For more information and a detailed description of the setup see iC5000 I/O module.

testIDEA: Verification of Test Specification against Debug Information

testIDEA can now verify the correctness of test specifications against the debug information. The following items are verified: existence of functions and global variables, hiding of global variables by local variables, duplicate IDs.

Why is that a nice feature?
It can happen that typos in the test specification e.g. in the function or variable names, wrong number of function parameters or renamed function or variable names in the source code cause invalid test results or even a target crash.

To discover such problems before test execution, iSYSTEM added the new command "Tools / Verify symbols" to testIDEA.
Problems are shown in the Status View. By double clicking the problem line an explanation to the problem is shown in the right (light red) window and the Test Specification Editor view switches to the test specification related to the problem.

iSYSTEM's new Software Tool Qualification Video

Embedded News TV has published a new video on iSYSTEM's Tool Qualification suite.

iSYSTEM offers organizational measures and documentation as well as a tool setup to validate a dedicated functionality of iSYSTEM's tools according to safety standards like e.g. ISO26262.
 

Standards require qualification for software tools used in the development and test process before the actual development starts.

More information on iSYSTEM or on iSYSTEM's blog.

iSYSTEM's new Real Time Unit Test Video

Embedded News TV just published a new video on iSYSTEM's RealTime Unit Test tool.

iSYSTEM calls it realtime unit test because all tests are executed on the real hardware without any effects on the runtime behavior.

 

iSYSTEM has enhanced their debug and test tools to allow the generation and execution of test cases from inside the development environment. Realtime unit testing runs test scripts and verifies the application without any influence on its runtime behavior.
Realtime unit testing does not require any code instrumentation or any test driver. Without compiling/ linking/ download the test is executed on the real target hardware.

Now view the video.

More information on iSYSTEM and on iSYSTEM's blog.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: winIDEA's Profiler regards Stack Killers

Most operating systems have means to kill/terminate a task. Killing a task can become necessary when a task is stalled and occupies resources like memory and CPU. The way how task termination is implemented differs between operating systems, but it is an ungrateful way of ending and should only be used when there is no alternative because cleanup of resources is not done, e.g. stack, mutexes, synchronization objects are not released. 

Considering this behaviour from a profiler's perspective it's a disaster. A profiler watches function entry and exit points by tracking the stack. As long as the stack is valid, the task is regarded alive, but maybe in suspended state to be resumed in the future. If now the task is terminated without cleaning the stack, the profiler needs to know about it to avoid  incorrect measurements.

winIDEA's profiler can now be configured to be aware of these so called stack killers. When execution in the stack killer is detected, all active functions in the task within the current context (whose exit has not been detected jet) are considered preemptively terminated and all stack entries downto it's previous invocation are dismissed.

The stack killer configuration window is shown in Profiler's Configuration when pressing the "Advanced..." button. 

 

 

iSYSTEMTechBlog: winIDEA supports Keyboard Shortcuts for external Scripts

Since winIDEA 2011 build 55 (9.11.55) keyboard shortcuts can be configured for external scripts.

To configure shortcuts for scripts open the Tools/Options/Script dialog. In the section "Shortcut scripts" enter the name of the external script.

To define the keyboard shortcut, open Tools/Customize/Keyboard dialog.

Select in category Tools and on the right side the command the Run Shortcut script 1 to create the keyboard shortcut for the first script - in our example ProfilerConfig.py . Set the cursor in the dialog box Press new shortcut, press the key combination to use and select Assign.

When you now use in winIDEA above key combination the script e.g. ProfilerConfig.py will be executed.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Multiple Special Function Register Definitions supported

Since winIDEA 2011 build 53 (9.11.53) multiple special function registers (SFRs) can be defined for a CPU. In the CPU specification, names of multiple CPUs or modules can be combined with the + sign. This allows adding a few SFRs for a CPU.

In the beside example the default registers for MPC5567 are used with addition of SFRs specified in external definition MySFRs.

Additional custom SFRs files (*.SFR, *.SFG) can be placed in the newly imple-mented SFR subfolder of winIDEA.

After the next restart of winIDEA the custom SFRs will be available.