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iSYSTEMTechBlog: New Profiler Statistics View

Starting with winIDEA 2011 build 28 iSYSTEM redesigned winIDEA's analyzer window which now unifies trace and profiler analysis functionality. Both analyses can run in parallel on a single recording session.

Based on that new design winIDEA now also offers a new profiler statistics view. Any statistical aspect of the profiler session can be displayed as a column in the statistics view.

 
Statistics on following objects with minimum and maximum values are available :

• Call Time: time spent between function entry and exit including interrupts and subroutine calls
• Net Time: time spent in the function only (without interrupts, without subroutines) 
• Gross Time: time spent between function entry and exit, including subroutine calls, but without interrupts
• Period: how often the function is called

To select the columns to view you press the button with the clock symbol or right click the header line below the the toolbar. 

iSYSTEMTechBlog: Custom Tools can use winIDEA's Output Window

Since winIDEA version 9.11.36 any custom tool can  use winIDEA's output window to view information.

The main advantage of this feature is that you can see the outputs and error messages of all tools you use in one window.

To set the new Use Output window option, open Tools/Customize/Tools menu and check the option.

You can also set other parameters for your tool, e.g. command line arguments, directory settings, etc.

 

If the option Use Output window is checked, the tool will start hidden and STDOUT/STDERR streams will be shown in winIDEA's output windows tools pane.

 

 

testIDEA: Specify Tests when writing your Application's Code

iSYSTEM testIDEA professional version now offers a feature to write the test specification at the same time you are writing your application's code. 

For those that do not know about testIDEA: testIDEA provides realtime Unit Testing by execution of test cases and test vectors on the real customer hardware without code instrumentation. Primarily testIDEA is a free and open programming interface (API) that is completely integrated in winIDEA. With that API set one can write test applications/cases but also auto­mati­cally execute them on customer’s hardware connected by iSYSTEM tools. testIDEA also includes an interactive editor for generating test cases and test reports.

Additional to above you can now also write down a test specification in your source code and testIDEA will extract that test spec and execute it. Assume you are a developer or code reviewer: Already when you write (or read) the source code, you think about function parameters and their limits. So, wouldn't it be a good idea to write down a test specification already at that point?

In general unit tests are tightly related to specific sections of the source code. Usually each test belongs to one function. Therefore it makes sense to keep test specifications in the same file - in the source code. To add a test specification, mark it with the special C/C++ comment string /*# which is a standard C/C++ multi-line comment followed by #. Below you see two functions plus test specificatons (different parameters transfers are used to show possible syntax):

/*#
- func: [Func1, [], rv]
  params: [3]
  expect:
  - rv == 13
- func: [Func2, [3, ´a´, -1], rv]
  expect:
  - rv == 0x41
*/ 

int Func1(int i)
{
 int x=0;
 for (;x<10;++x)
  ++i;
 return i;
}

long Func2(int i,char c, long l)
{
 int x=0;
 long y=0;
 for (;x<10;++x)
  y+=x+i+c+l;
 return y;
}

When you open in testIDEA the source code file including the test specifications, testIDEA will parse the code and find above test specs. When you change the test specification in testIDEA, the change will be written back to the source code file into the comment lines.

More information (including the syntax) can be found in testIDEA's online help file.

testIDEA: Test Specification Templates

iSYSTEM testIDEA allows now to create test specifications from templates.

For those that do not know about testIDEA: testIDEA provides realtime Unit Testing by execution of test cases and test vectors on the real customer hardware without code instrumentation. Primarily testIDEA is a free and open programming interface (API) that is completely integrated in winIDEA. With that API set one can write test applications/cases but also auto­mati­cally execute them on customer’s hardware connected by iSYSTEM tools. testIDEA also includes an interactive editor for generating test cases and test reports.

If test specifications are similar, we can now create new test specifications based on a template. Template files are *.iyaml files created with testIDEA. To use them as templates, we add them to the list of files in the Templates dialog. The same dialog is also used for adding new test specifications based on templates to the current project in testIDEA. Select option File | New Test From Template..., and the following dialog opens:

This dialog can be used to edit the list of template files - we can have more of them, if needed. Test specifications from the selected file are shown in the bottom pane. To add a new test specifiation to the current project, select the test specification in the dialog and click OK.

If you want it to be added as a derived test specification of the currently selected test specification in testIDEA, check also the Add as derived test check box.

More information can be found here and in  testIDEA's online help file.

iSYSTEMTechBlog: New Measurement Plugin in winIDEA

One of the new features in winIDEA 9.11.34 is a measurement plugin that allows you to see details of your embedded hardware. The new measurement plugin is available for the iC5000.

The measurement plugin is started from Plugins/Measurement.

Run Duration shows the time the CPU was running since the last time the user set it to running. The accuracy of this value is approximately 20ms.

CPU Clock, Vref and Trace Clock are measured on the debug interface and show the CPU/System clock, reference voltage and on-chip trace clock of the embedded hardware.

GND Faults are the number of observed groundtransient events. An event is registered when debugger and traget GND potentials differ by more than 250mV. The GND potentials are sampled at 500ns intervals.
If this value is non zero, verify that the debugger and embedded target GND have a good contact. Switching target on or off will normally cause a few transient events.

If the plugin displays "?", then either the emulation system or the target hardware does not support measuring.

More information: winIDEA2011 ReleaseNotes