On Debugging Real-Time Applications

Debugging is an integral part of the software development cycle which can account for up to 50% of the development time of an application. This paper discusses some of the challenges specific to real-time debugging. It explains how developing real-time applications can be supported by an environment which addresses the issues of time deadline monitoring and distortion due to the interference of debugging. The current implementation of this environment provides the elapsed time during debugging on request at breakpoints. This time information corresponds to the elapsed execution time since program initiation. Delays due to the interference of the debugger, for example input delays at breakpoints, are excluded from the time estimates. The environment includes a modified compiler and a static cache simulator which together produce instrumented programs for the purpose of debugging. The instrumented program supports source-level debugging of optimized code and an efficient cache simulation..