A guided tour through a window oriented debugging environment for embedded real time Ada systems

Abstract

Embedded real time control systems typically require the use of special debugging environments, which consist of a special debugging processor that hosts the debugging software and that monitors the execution of the separate target system via a special hardware interface. Our focus is on extending the set of base debugging features typically found in such an environment to provide better support for real time task debugging and to provide a more visual graphic display of program behavior. We have developed a system that provides such facilities, in the form of a task condition specification and checking system and a multi-window graphics display. We have implemented a prototype of these novel debugging features that demonstrates how they work and how they assist in the debugging process. We illustrate the features of our system here by providing a "tour" through an example debugging session. We also comment on various constraints that directed the prototype development process.

A generic embedded real-time monitor subsystem

“…Completed subsystems to date include the user interface (an enhancement of the window-based interface described in [GF88]) and the message passing shell supporting the communication between the various GERTMs subcomponents. The prototype is implemented in Ada, using a collection of Ada tasks and corresponding remote procedure calls to mimic the distributed multiprocess design.…”