TRACE32 supports Windows Embedded Compact 7 with SMP

By adding a trace system, the user can undertake real-time performance analysis at the thread level. To follow Windows CE.net and versions CE 5 and CE 6, Microsoft recently announced Windows Embedded Compact 7“, which includes an advanced version of the kernel from CE 6. Lauterbach has therefore extended its “Windows CE Awareness” for the TRACE32 debugger so that it now supports the latest CE-Generation. By using this “Windows CE Awareness”, the user is able to analyse the processes and threads present on the target. With TRACE32 this can be done even if no software debug channel (e.g. KITL) and no shell is present in the system. By using the extended MMU support of the TRACE32 debugger, the developer gets access to the complete virtual address space at any time – i.e. you can debug bootstrap, kernel, drivers and applications simultaneously. You can also debug several processes at once, which is especially useful for testing inter-process communications. If the system is based on a CPU with trace capability (e.g. ARM-ETM) then TRACE32 selectively records processor cycles.

Using those records, thread switches can be examined and graphically displayed. Thread run times and function run times are calculated to give a detailed performance analysis. Statistic tables also give accurate information about the system load. Symmetric multi processing (SMP) distributes an application over several similar processors or cores. The operating system manages the dynamic distribution of the runtime threads and attempts to balance the load on the cores as much as possible. This optimizes the total system in terms of run time, and frees the developer from deciding which work should be done on which core. Lauterbach has extended its Windows CE Awareness to include SMP capability, thus allowing easy debugging of Windows CE SMP applications. The debugger can switch to any core as required providing a detailed view of the overall CPU operation. It evaluates the call stacks of all active and passive threads and shows where an active thread is currently running or where a passive thread is waiting. The system is started and stopped synchronously for all cores; a breakpoint hit halts the complete CPU, regardless which core reached the breakpoint. When this occurs the debugger automatically switches the view to the core that hit the breakpoint.

Using these features the developer gains access to the complete system and all of its
resources. You’re debugging on “system level” rather than on “core level”. Windows Embedded Compact 7 support, including SMP, is available immediately and all of the
corresponding Windows Mobile versions are included in this release.