Towards a rapid prototyping by linking design, implementation and debugging in real-time parallel systems

Abstract

Due to the culture of sequential programming, the lack of tools and the inherent difficulties of parallel programming, most programmers find it hard to design and evaluate real time parallel programs. As a result, a major problem found in the development of real time parallel systems is the difficulty to produce rapid prototypes of the application and frequently the development of these types of systems, is behind schedule. The paper presents a visual environment which should be able to provide continuity in the development of projects using the most common development methods, traditional or object oriented, by offering support during the phases of implementation, debugging and testing. The environment has a visual interface with the user and the main aim is to facilitate the learning process in the generation and debugging of source code of applications developed for parallel kernels, in particular for Virtuoso (Virtual Single Processor Programming System-Virtuoso is a trademark of Eonic Systems-http://www.eonic.com). The environment is composed of four tools: a Parallel Program Generator, a Worst Case Execution Time Analyser, a Scheduling Analyser, and a Parallel Debugger. The first version of the tool is available for download from http://www.dc.ufscar.br/tev/tev.html and was released as Teaching Environment for Virtuoso (TEV).