|
Lauterbach presents its new debugging concept for symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) at Embedded Linux, a developer's forum from D&E
Hofolding, October 2008 - Lauterbach, the leading manufacturer of micro-processor development systems, will present its latest developments for SMP debugging with its TRACE32 debugger at the Embedded Linux developer's forum on October 15, 2008 in Ludwigsburg, Germany.
Symmetrical multiprocessing (SMP) involves distributing an application to several equal cores or hardware threads. An SMP-compatible operating system, such as Linux, dynamically distributes program components (processes/threads) to balance the load across all cores as much as possible. Compared with conventional asymmetrical multiprocessing systems (AMP), SMP brings advantages to both the performance and the power consumption of applications.
However, because SMP systems dynamically allocate processes to the cores, the core on which the code will be executed is not known in advance. It is therefore inappropriate to start a debugging instance to debug a specific core and, for example, to set a breakpoint for only this core (Core View). Instead, a common debugging instance is started that controls the whole system (System View) and displays information on the active core each time the debugging is stopped. The view can then be switched to other cores to display their current status.
For those switching from single-core systems to multiprocessing systems, bound multiprocessing (BMP) is especially interesting. BMP has the advantages of both methods and is also supported by TRACE32. With BMP, the operating system typically binds the code of the single-core application to a specific core.
The latest TRACE32 software also offers SMP debugging at no extra cost to those who already have a multi-core license.
|
|
