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.

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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)
Settingbreakpoints 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

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