A tool for analyzing and fine tuning the real-time properties of an embedded system

Abstract

This paper describes a computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tool that helps designers analyze and fine-tune the timing properties of their embedded real-time software. Existing CASE tools focus on the software specification and design of embedded systems. However, they provide little, if any, support after the software has been implemented. Even if the developer used a CASE tool to design the system, their system most likely does not meet the specifications on the first try. This paper includes guidelines for implementing analyzable code, profiling a real-time system, filtering and extracting measured data, analyzing the data, and interactively predicting the effect of changes to the real-time system. The tool is a necessary first step towards automating the debugging and fine tuning of an embedded system's temporal properties.