Index Real-Time Magazine 99q1 on DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS

Index Real-Time Magazine 1Q99

Editorial
By Martin Timmerman, Chief-Editor of Real-Time Magazine, Real-Time Consult.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 3
.

RTOS EVALUATIONS

RTOS Market Survey - Preliminary Results
Here we have the first in a new series of articles summarising the latest results of our on-line RTOS market survey. In this executive summary we present the expected areas of maximum market growth as well as the potential winners and losers within the overall market place.

By Martin Timmerman, President & CEO, Real-Time Consult.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 6
Back to top

RTOS Evaluations - Latest news
This is the latest installment in our series of news flashes from the RTOS evaluation program, which was launched by Real-Time Consult in 1998. In future issues of Real-Time Magazine, we intend to keep our readers informed of new developments in this project.

By Martin Timmerman, Chief-Editor of Real-Time Magazine, Bart Van Beneden, Project Manager, Real-Time Consult.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 9
Back to top
.

RTX 4.2 Evaluation - Executive Summary
The following article is the long-awaited executive summary report of our evaluation of RTX 4.2, the real-time extension to Windows NT from VenturCom Inc. In it we give an overview of the system architecture, API richness, performance, and support available.

By Martin Timmerman, Chief-Editor of Real-Time Magazine, Bart Van Beneden, Project Manager, Real-Time Consult.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 12
Back to top
.

METHODOLOGY

Developing and debugging Real-Time Software with ObjecTime Developer
ObjecTime Developer is a software development tool that implements UML for Real-Time[1] constructs and enables software developers to generate complete applications[2] directly from their visual design models. ObjecTime Developer also supports the formal design semantics of MSCs so that they are useful for expressing the intended behavior of a system and for automatically verifying system behavior at run-time. Race condition analysis of the Message Sequence Chart can pinpoint design flaws or alternate execution scenarios. Built in model level debugging including state-machine animation and breakpoints, and integration with third party source debuggers, compilers, configuration management and operating systems provides a complete high performance real-time software development environment.

By Andrew Lyons, Senior Applications Specialist, ObjecTime Ltd
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 17
Back to top
.

The Formal Approach for Real-Time Design
The increased complexity of software systems together with the increased demand for productivity and shortened product life cycles leads to a continuous search for new technologies in the effort of meeting continuously increasing demands. Currently within the software engineering community there is a large interest towards graphical modeling and design techniques as an approach to manage the task. Other groups within the software engineering community strongly believe that these demands may only be satisfied by increased usage of formal methods and formal languages.

By Niklas Landin, Methods Consultant, Telelogic.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 25
Back to top
.

Software Design Using CRC Cards
Many notations, methods and books have been published in recent years regarding analysis and design of object-oriented software. While popular object-oriented notations and methods like Booch, OMT, Shlaer/Mellor and UML are becoming more prevalent in large organizations, the learning curve and overhead of formal methods can be excessive for small projects.

By Harold Halbleib, Product Manager, Excel Software.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 28
Back to top
.

An architected, incremental development approach for real-time systems.
Projects are adopting an incremental approach to delivering systems. This needs to be based on a firm grasp of the requirements and a solid technical foundation. For many real-time and all embedded systems, the system under consideration consists of both software and hardware components that are often developed in parallel. This article introduces ARTiSAN's incremental development process, Real-time Perspective, and shows how a system developed using the process evolves from initial requirements through to the final design.

By Alan Moore, Vice-President of Product Strategy, Tony Backwith, Senior Methods Engineer, ARTiSAN Software Tools.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 33

DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

Embedded Systems Programming – Must it be so tough?
Embedded systems programming typically requires dedicated development tools, that often run as command line programs only. The INtime real time extension to Windows NT provided by RadiSys Corporation not only adds determinism to Windows NT, but also includes development support similar to what the Windows NT programmer takes for granted these days. This article provides details of the INtime development tools, and describes some of the implementation methods.

By Jan Baan, INtime Application Consultant, RadiSys BV.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 38
Back to top

Parallel Programming with Embedded Hardware using ASAP
This paper presents the ASAP middleware and the Asynchronous Object-Oriented programming model on which it has been built. This middleware allows efficient programming of middle-to-fine grain parallel applications. The small footprint of this middleware makes it portable to embedded systems and Digital Signal Processors. Particularly, it allows integration of these hardware components in larger systems, providing their flexibility and computing power to the scientific computing community.

By Bruno Wéry, Fernand Quartier, Spacebel Informatique.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 43
Back to top
.

Designing Complex Embedded Systems without an Emulator
With the increasing power and higher clock frequencies of the latest 32-bit RISC-based processor designs, a new debug and development strategy is required for embedded applications. Traditional approaches using an In-Circuit Emulator are becoming less practical. As a result, processor manufacturers such as Motorola have had to design debug support into their chip architectures. All their latest RISC designs - PowerPC, ColdFire and M.Core - offer various levels of built-in debug capability.

By Geoff Revill, Vice-President, SDS Europe.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 49
Back to top
.

Meeting the Challenge of Developing Today’s Real-Time Embedded Applications
The embedded software designers are faced with increasingly complex systems and reducing development schedules. Traditional development tools based on source-level debuggers don't allow developers to debug at higher levels of abstraction and can't deliver the system visualisation required to enhance productivity. A new class of highly graphical, software logic analyser development tools are now emerging. These tools can provide the developer with execution flow visualisation, comprehensive triggering and links for custom data processing and presentation.

By Nigel Street, Project Leader for WindView, Wind River Systems.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 54
Back to top
.

Modeling and Implementing Critical Real-Time Systems with SyncCharts/Esterel
This article presents SyncCharts / Esterel, a product developed by Simulog, to be used for the specification and the development of critical real time systems. SyncCharts is a graphical notation used to represent hierarchical state diagrams designed by Charles André at the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. Esterel is the name of a synchronous programming language and it's compiler, both designed at Ecole des Mines de Paris and INRIA under the guidance of G. Berry. Esterel is also the name of famous hills on the French Riviera, nearby Sophia Antipolis where the language was designed. The full SyncCharts/Esterel product, which is described in this article, is now available from Simulog in its version 1.2.

By Bernard Dion, Sylvan Dissoubray, Simulog
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 58
Back to top
.

Integrated Environment is Key to Real-Time Software Development
Software engineers searching for the perfect development environment for an important real-time software project should consider integration a major selection criterion. Successful development of real-time software applications requires the tight integration of a software development toolset, the real-time operating system (RTOS), and compilers that are targeted to the microprocessor architecture. Because mission critical, real-time applications require a reliable operating system environment, the incorporation of a UNIX-based RTOS is another important consideration.

By Don Noel, Product Manager, Concurrent Computer Corp.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 64
Back to top
.

DEBUGGING

Design-Level Debugging
Soon after source-level compilers were introduced, software designers realized that assembler-level techniques were no longer the most effective way to debug systems that were defined in high order languages (HOLs). Designers no longer wanted to debug by determining whether the system should have branched on zero or non-carry. They wanted to understand if the FOR-LOOP had been executed the appropriate number of times. Eventually, it became necessary to debug systems in the same level of abstraction in which they were defined.

By John Stanglewicz, Product Manager, Rhapsody Product Line, I-Logix Inc.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 68
Back to top

Application Level Debugging
An operating system designed for distributed real-time systems needs to provide more than basic task manipulation. It should also provide assistance for developing both multitasking and multiprocessor systems. Distributed real-time systems often involve complex interactions. You need to see the control flow passing between tasks, whether they are running on one processor or on multiple processors.

By Robert Largren, Product Manager, Enea OSE Systems.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 73

WINDOWS CE

Windows CE for Industrial Computing
Windows CE is smashing industrial process control applications. The strength of Microsoft in Marketing is proven but the reliability may be questionable. The question is "Will system engineers jump on this operating system when designing industrial systems?" Microsoft products have already been used in industrial applications, for example the telecom or process control systems. Windows CE offers more interesting features coupling an embeddable real-time kernel and a graphical user interface using a subset of the Win32 API. The development tools are known by all the developers, thus reducing the time to market, maintenance and upgrades cost. This article details the advantage of Windows CE for industrial application. A real life example is also described.

By Nelly Jacqueson, Product Manager, Gespac SA.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 76
Back to top

API

Standard API Would Significantly Accelerate Embedded System Development
Imagine being able to focus 80% of your efforts on improving the efficiency and feature set of your end product. Unfortunately, today's embedded system designers spend as little as 50% of their development effort on applications code. Instead, they are focused on the hardware (20%) and on making their applications software work on their hardware (30%). The bottom line is that time is wasted making software work on the target hardware. As a result, developers often have to choose between adopting new processor technologies to keep pace with the competition and developing new software to enhance features. It is typical to find that 40% of the feature set doesn't make it into the final product.

By Shaul Gal-Oz, President and CEO, Aisys.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 81
Back to top
.

C++

Is C++ Or Embedded C++ Suited To Your Embedded Application?
This article presents an overview of the capabilities of Embedded C++ (EC++). Embedded system software developers currently using C are faced with an important decision when beginning a new project - should they change their programming language to the increasingly popular C++, Embedded C++ (EC++) or remain with ANSI C? This article considers the benefits of using Embedded C++ versus C++ and the functionality it provides.

By Christopher Smith, Director of Marketing, Eur. Operations, Green Hills Software.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 90
Back to top
.

MILLENNIUM

Analyzing Potential Year 2000 Code Problems With Source-Navigator
This article describes how to use Cygnus Solutions' Source-Navigator code-comprehension tool to detect and fix potential Year 2000 (Y2K) problems in existing code. Though not originally designed for Y2K applications, Source-Navigator is ideal for Y2K applications.

By Mark Carson, Cygnus Solutions And Manfred Schlitt, CAS GmbH
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 98
Back to top
.

OTHERS

Bookstores
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 71

Book Review
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 103

Agenda
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 104

Company Directory
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 107

Advertisement Index
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 112

Subscription Form
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS FOR REAL-TIME SYSTEMS - 99q1 - p. 113