Symtavision and Lauterbach collaborate on joint workflow for automotive ECU development

BRAUNSCHWEIG, GERMANY: Symtavision, the global leader for timing design and timing verification for embedded real-time systems, and Lauterbach, the leading manufacturer of microprocessor development tools, have created a joint workflow for the development of automotive ECUs.

The Symtavision/Lauterbach joint workflow is the result of an ongoing collaboration between the two companies that combines hardware-assisted debugging with architecture-independent schedule visualization and analysis. It has been structured to deliver the benefits of faster systems design, fewer architecture refinement iterations and minimizes the effort for future software extensions.

The workflow combines Lauterbach's TRACE32 suite of modular microprocessor development tools with Symtavision's TraceAnlayzer tool for visualizing and analyzing timing data, and Symtavision's SymTA/S system-level tool suite for planning, optimizing and verifying embedded real-time systems. ECU code is imported into TRACE32 from any third party ECU configuration tool for target debugging, emulation and software validation.

Trace data from ECU measurements or hardware independent simulations is then passed to TraceAnalyzer to visualize and analyze timing traces and validate ECU scheduling. The resulting timing models can be processed further in SymTA/S to perform worst-case and statistical timing analysis, as well as to virtually change the scheduling and explore / optimize the overall software architecture.

The optimized configuration is then passed back to TRACE32 via the third party ECU configuration tool and uploaded to the target, completing the round-trip workflow.

"With this workflow we are further streamlining automotive ECU software development," said Dr. Marek Jersak, CEO of Symtavision. "Our collaboration with Lauterbach enables our customers to develop their systems much faster, independently of the ultimate target processor, and optimize both the current software-architecture and plan for future software extensions. This approach saves cost while ensuring all software can reliably execute in real-time."