A customizable tool for profiling real time device driver timing behavior

A modem operating system uses device drivers to interact with computer peripherals and the external hardware components. When a host system that monitors and controls device hardware must meet strict timing requirements, then it and the device hardware form a real time system. The project presented in this paper is a real time stepper motor based X-Y motion control system. The host system is an x86 PC with a real time Linux operating system. In a real time system, device drivers are developed to interface with device hardware. These drivers must be meticulously tested and analyzed for correct timing behavior. . Timing performance testing requires the availability of very precise and flexible tools. This paper presents such a tool for profiling device driver execution. The tool created to do this is the Custom Trace Profiler (CTP) tool. This tool processes trace data generated by device driver execution whose source code contains trace calls. Trace event data includes the time at which a trace call is executed. The CTP tool compiles statistics for average and worst case (longest) response time, and other timing metrics from trace event timing data. This provides the device developer with a flexible, fine grain analysis to test any part of driver task code for successful execution and correct timing behavior