Express Logic TraceX 5.2 Speeds Optimization And Debug

BOSTON(BUSINESS WIRE) Express Logic, Inc., the worldwide leader in royalty-free real-time operating systems (RTOS), today announced TraceX 5.2, the latest version of its powerful real-time event trace program. As a graphical analytical program, TraceX 5.2 represents real-time system events so that developers can visualize precisely what their system is doing across any desired time interval. Advanced real-time granularity, search capabilities, and user interface improvements in TraceX 5.2 speed debug and optimization of real-time applications.

Similar to an aircraft "black box," TraceX reveals system events immediately preceding a crash, helping developers to understand what caused the failure. Express Logic's ThreadX RTOS creates a database of system and application events in a target-resident circular buffer, with time-stamping and active core-thread (for multicore systems) identification so they can be displayed later in the proper time sequence by TraceX. Trace information may be uploaded to the host for analysis by TraceX at any time whether at post mortem or on encountering a breakpoint. Acting as a "software logic analyzer" on the host, TraceX makes system events plainly visible, clearly identifying system bottlenecks or failures.

With TraceX 5.2, users gain more control over application analysis and control with features such as:
    * Advanced Searching--selecting a method of event search, users can "search by Context," "Search by Object," "Search by ID," and "Search by Value"
    * Increased Granularity--By specifying the number of TraceX time-ticks per microsecond, users can produce a real-time scale of their target system. Extending this relationship throughout TraceX, all displays indicate actual time.
    * Color-coded Status Lines--visual representation mark time periods to depict threads that are "READY," "SUSPENDED," or "TERMINATED," with different colors to quickly indicate the type of suspension (mutex, semaphore, etc.)
    * Report Action buttons--quick action buttons open reports such as Execution Profile, Performance Statistics, and Thread Stack Usage with a single click.
    * Customized Events--Users now can define a custom event icon to indicate an application event of particular interest.

"With our new TraceX Release 5.2, ThreadX developers gain increased visibility and control over their system during development, further speeding their time to market," noted William E. Lamie, president of Express Logic. "These improved user features ensure that developers can easily customize TraceX to their application and gain tick-level granularity into the real-time behavior of their system. With debug and optimization taking up to 80 percent of most development projects, tools such as TraceX prove invaluable in meeting time-to-market deadlines."

TraceX also provides the statistics and performance profiles that portray how the system is performing and to assist in fine-tuning its operation:
    * Execution Profile--shows the percentage of execution time spent in each application thread, interrupt routine, and system idle time
    * Popular Services--portrays which ThreadX services are most often used by the application
    * Thread Stack Usage--details the amount of stack memory used by each thread in the system, enabling better optimization of memory stack allocation and prevention stack overflow
    * Performance Statistics--counts the number of context switches, interrupts, priority inversions, and other critical events that occur during system operationTraceX and TraceX MC for multicore environments are available for use on Windows PCs, at a license price of $1,000 per developer seat, with no license keys required.