Software increases Java coding options

PERC Pico components used in conjunction with the PERC Ultra virtual soft real-time product make it possible to address all levels of the embedded real-time application.

Aonix has released a new version 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 optimised 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 analyse 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 analyser to calculate the total stack memory requirements for every running thread.

This kind of analysis and enforcement is extremely beneficial in the development of deeply embedded, real-time systems where memory allocation and predictability are important.

PERC Pico 1.1 also 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.

The ability 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 make 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.

PERC Pico 1.1 is available now for Windows and Linux/x86 platforms and is readily portable to all major processor architectures for both RTOS and bare-board platforms.

Back to top