Tornado:%20An%20Embedded%20System%20Development%20Tool

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Tornado An Embedded System Development Tool

• Maung Wynn Aung Han
• CIS 642, Spring 2001
• Prof. Insup Lee

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Tornado

• An IDE to develop real-time and embedded
  applications with minimal intrusion on the target
  system.

3
Tornado comprises

• VxWorks, a high-performance real-time operating
  system.
• Application-building tools (compilers and
  associated programs).
• IDE for managing projects, host-target
  communication, running, debugging, and monitoring
  VxWorks applications.

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The Tornado IDE

• An integrated source-code editor.
• A project management facility.
• Integrated C and C compiler and linker.
• The browser, a visual monitoring tool for target
  system.
• CrossWind, a source-level debugger.
• WindSh, C and Tcl command shell that controls the
  target.
• VxWorks target simulator VxSim.
• WindView software logic analyzer for the target
  simulator.

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Overview of Tornado IDE
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The Tornado shell (WindSh)

• allows you to download application modules,
• invoke both VxWorks and application module
  subroutines.
• Can be used for interactive exploration of the
  VxWorks operating system and applications.
• WindSh can interpret most C language expressions.
• A Tcl interpreter is also included.

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Debugger (CrossWind)

• Setting breakpoints and controlling program
  execution.
• Program listings and data-inspection windows.
• Command-line interface extendable by Tcl
  scripting.

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Browser

• The main browser window can be used to monitor-
• active system and application tasks
• memory consumption
• summary of the current target memory use
• The displays are snapshots and can be configured
  to update interactively, or the automatically at
  a specified interval.

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Browser Display Includes

• detailed task information
• semaphores
• message queues
• memory partitions
• watchdog timers
• stack usage by all tasks on the target
• target CPU usage by task
• object-module structure and symbols
• interrupt vectors

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WindView

• WindView acts as a logic analyzer for real-time
  software.
• It allows to study the dynamic interactions of
  among elements of your complex system.
• triggering facility to start and stop data
  collection.
• view graph provides visual chronicle of the
  real-time system.

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An example of WindView screen
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WindView can be used to

• Detect race conditions, deadlocks, CPU
  starvation, and other problems relating to task
  interaction.
• Determine application responsiveness and
  performance.
• See cyclic patterns in application behavior.
• Save data for deferred analysis.
• Conduct post-mortem analyses of failed systems.

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A Simple Demo (priority inversion)
release B
using resource B
need resource A (blocked)
high
need resource B (blocked)
long execution
mid
low
preempted
release A
using resource A
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Sample program structure

• Main task will spawn three tasks with low, high
  and medium priorities consecutively with some
  delay.
• Three Tasks will use resources as explained
  above.
• After launching the three tasks, the main task
  terminates.

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Task States
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Some WindView legends
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Seeing the tasks started in WindView
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High priority task blocked
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Low priority task preempted
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Medium priority task blocks
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Low priority task executes to the end and higher
ones follow.
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After using priority inheritance
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Before using priority inheritance
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Conclusion

• VxWorks is an established platform of RTOS.
• Tornado suite of tools allow fast development of
  embedded systems.
• Good debugging/monitoring tools improve
  reliability of systems.
• Finally, I explored it out of curiosity and dont
  get paid by WindRiver. )
• (but thanks to Mr Aftahi from WindRiver for Site
  Keys)

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References

• www.windriver.com
• www.wrs.com