Imsys Developer 7

Introduction

Imsys Developer is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for programming, debugging and maintenance of Imsys processor based systems. It contains a text editor, compiler, assembler, linker, loader, simulator, debugger/tracer and a software profile management tool. Use of the Imsys Developer is assisted by an extensive help system.

Imsys Developer provides support for the new IM3000-based hardware (and older SNAP modules). The individualization of the hardware is handled via software "profiles".

Profiles

With Imsys Developer version 7 a new concept allowing software configured hardware by the use of profiles has been introduced. Imsys Developer 7.0 and later versions is initially installed without target platforms. The target platform is defined by installing a specific profile package containing libraries, header files, microprograms etc. for a defined processor type eg. IM3220, IM3910 etc. These packages contain files and settings specific to each application class.

The profiles are downloaded and installed separately on your PC. To build and debug an application you need to have at least one profile installed. New products from Imsys always have a corresponding profile release for installation in the Developer 7 framework. The profiles and its versions are managed by the Developer 7 where you make the selection of target system. One installation of Developer can handle an unlimited number of profiles.

Registered developers can download new profiles the Download Area in the Developer Zone.

The Developer Framework

Developer includes all the need functions for a development project and behaves as as state-of-the-art framework programs in the market. An application project is created, the program is compiled, and resulting files are collected and transferred to the target system where the target application is run and debugged, using the Imsys Developer. Especially the Debugger and graphic Event Analyzer are highly appreciated tools in the development work.

High and Low level programming

Imsys Developer can be used to program applications on all levels. Complex tasks are programmed in Java or C. Time critical parts are programmed in Assembler, i.e. at the machine instruction level.

Downloading to the Target and Debugging

When an application has been compiled and linked, it is downloaded to the target system. Imsys Developer is then used to trace or debug the application. Debugging is provided on source code levels, both in C and Java, as well as on machine code level, with all the usual debugging features. If Java is used, usually Java class files are collected and transferred to a file system in the target. Also data files of different type can be included in the project and transferred.

Event Analyzer

The Rubus operating system included in Imsys’ target platforms provides an event logging facility. During run-time the operating system maintains the log of important system events, such as interrupts, thread switches, operations on synchronization objects and so on. Each log entry contains an event descriptor and a timestamp, i.e. what happened, when and in which order.

The event logging can help to simplify and speed up the process of applications development and debugging, performance analyzing and tuning, searching for problems or bottlenecks. The event log can be viewed and analyzed from the Imsys Developer IDE in a convenient graphical form with zoom function.

This mechanism is extensible, and the user can append his own event object into the logging system and put a log entry each time the event occurs.