PERC Pico Tool Chain with Real-Time Memory Analysis Tools for Java Programmers

Aonix, the provider of the PERC product line for embedded and
real-time Java developers, announced a new release of its PERC Pico product—the first commercial offering based on an emerging Java
Specification Request (JSR)-302 for development of hard real-time
safety-critical code. Rivalling the capabilities of optimized
C-language programs, PERC Pico 1.1 enables developers to use the Java
language in low-level code requiring small memory footprint, fast
performance, and predictable tight response-time latencies.

PERC Pico 1.1 offers developers a new memory-use analysis tool. For
the first time, developers of real-time Java systems can statically
analyze memory requirements and the memory footprint implications
associated with source-code changes without resorting to traditional
test and debug activities. The PERC Pico tools enforce programming
disciplines that enables the PERC Pico analyzer to calculate the total
stack memory requirements for every running thread. This kind of
analysis and enforcement is extremely beneficial to development of
deeply embedded, real-time systems where memory allocation and
predictability are important.

As well, PERC Pico 1.1 delivers important developer productivity
enhancements, providing new Eclipse plug-ins for building, launching,
and debugging PERC Pico applications. These plug-ins enable users to
quickly develop and test new PERC Pico applications on a target system
in a familiar, flexible and industry standard environment. An
important Debug facility new in this release, automatically translates
executable symbol names in a PERC Pico application to the Java names
shown in the Eclipse editor. Being able to easily view and identify
source-level code associations dramatically expedites debugging
activities.

"PERC Pico enables developers to take the benefits of Java right down
to the processor level," said Gary Cato, Aonix director of strategic
alliances. "Previously, embedded application engineers weren’t able to
consider Java for other than larger soft real-time systems. We’re
proud to be the first to offer a complete, real-world solution for
hard real-time projects."

PERC Pico components used in conjunction with the PERC Ultra virtual
soft real-time product, Aonix’s industry-leading virtual machine
technology for mission-critical applications, makes it possible to
address all levels of the embedded real-time application, from
high-level application complexity to the lowest levels of hardware.
Although traditional virtual machine technologies operate on top of an
operating environment like Linux or a traditional real-time operating
system (RTOS), PERC Pico run-time is the only one that can also
execute on the bare hardware.

For the first time, developers can now code their entire application
in the Java language, avoiding the mix of low-level C code into their
Java applications. This top-to-bottom Java solution eliminates awkward
and performance robbing interchanges via the Java Native Interface
(JNI), one of the most frequent points of failure in mixed-language
embedded Java applications.