Hardware debugging available in Continuous Integration infrastructures
Introducing a new product line within the BlueBox and embedded software tools portfolio: the iC5000/iC5700 CI, which allows you to implement hardware debugging into Continuous Integration (CI) infrastructures.
Hardware debugging becomes a natural part of test automation
Building test racks with multiple hardware setups – each consisting of the embedded target hardware and our BlueBox iC5000/iC5700 CI – give even globally distributed development and test teams shared access to hardware debugging capabilities within the CI setup. CI as a product is the combination of iSYSTEM BlueBox hardware, software and consulting services on how to set up the hardware and software of a CI infrastructure, unburdening the individual developers from complex hardware setups on their desk.
Fig.1: We have implemented a setup of a decentralized rack system, hosting more than 200 individual target configurations. All are accessible to our engineers, world-wide.
Integrate, Automate, Build, Test & Release
Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice which allows you to regularly submit your newly generated code to a code repository. A CI Software Tool starts an automated build and test process and provides you with timely feedback on the functionality of your code, adding to your team’s learning curve and increasing code quality. CI has gained a lot in popularity within embedded software development teams. To test as close as possible to the real hardware, tests often must be performed on the target hardware itself to safeguard the end products’ function as well as accurate timing behavior of the application. This is where our iC5000/iC5700 CI comes in.
Get the most out of your development and test tools
We have a long-standing experience in implementing automated software testing and using CI in our own labs. The iC5000/iC5700 CI was designed to be implemented in a CI rack setup and therefore became a natural part of the CI infrastructure. The BlueBox comes with the same functionality as the standalone products and is licensed on a subscription basis. Thus, tools like winIDEA and testIDEA with their interfaces and automation capabilities combined with our BlueBox can act as an “on-target” test framework. They stimulate functions, read values from a running target in a non-intrusive way, do fault injection and more. With the utilization of trace technology, hardware debuggers allow complex test scenarios that cannot be implemented with conventional software testing tools. Tracing can be used to test the performance of the embedded software, do timing analysis and profiling.
Tools remotely available for everyone on the team
“Enabling iSYSTEM tools for CI as a product, is a great move, and represents our 35 years of embedded software development and test experience with dedicated CI hardware and software", says Erol Simsek, CEO at iSYSTEM. “It makes an automated hardware test setup within a Continuous Integration infrastructure remotely available for all development and test engineers on the team – while saving time and money for installing individual test setups.”
How to implement CI in your embedded project?
Contact us for more information.
Further Links and Resources
- iSYSTEM Continuous Integration
- winIDEA IDE
- iSYSTEM BlueBoxes
- iSYSTEM Webinars: