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Real-Time Computer Trace Hardware ("RtTrace") Project Overview

Invented Real-Time
MCU Program-Trace
Hardware System
at ITT Courier Inc.

• Bill invented, designed and built hardware that continuously displays microprocessor bus activity in real-time.

• That is, by simply watching one graphics screen, the user can see a trace of every routine, subroutine, and I/O access, in real-time, without embedding any debug code, and without disturbing the program's time course.
• The relative intensities (of image regions) indicate the total duration spent executing that routine or subroutine.

Significance of this Accomplishment

• RtTrace enables real-time debugging of time-critical software.

• RtTrace is superior to software/hardware breakpoints because RtTrace does not use any debug code, and does not disturb the program's time course, whereas, breakpoints have both these drawbacks.

• RtTrace produces a "whole system overview," not just a complex stream of details.

• RtTrace is simple, requiring only a handful of off-the-shelf chips.

Skills Transferable to Your Projects:

Leadership / Management
• Bill invented, designed, built, and successfully utilized the RtTrace system.

Theory / R&D
• Bill's familiarity with many hardware and software techniques enabled RtTrace development.
• This includes Bill’s numerous insights in computer science, and hardware design (D/A, FIFO buffering, MCU Bus architecture, and Test instruments).

Software
• It was Bill's own software projects (mostly MCU assembly language) that forced the invention of RtTrace.

Hardware
• 100% of RtTrace is executed in hardware, all of which Bill conceived, designed and built.

Future Opportunities

By pushing beyond the current state-of-the-art,
there are these opportunities:

• Today's complex systems-on-a-chip (SOCs) include time-critical software execution that can not tolerate any significant disturbance the program's time course. RtTrace can help.

• Bill's initial version of RtTrace could be significantly enhanced by adding specialized hardware traps and address/data filters.

Links to related material

• "One of the hardest problems facing embedded developers today is the limited visibility into the workings of their software. This is especially apparent when working on systems with strict real-time constraints because standard debugging techniques generally rely on altering the execution behavior of the software being debugged." -- source