a³ release 13.04


Multiple analyses
Improved Results Viewer
Improved compiler selection

Targets

Qualification Support Kits (QSKs)

  • Baseline information about the qualified tool is now consistently listed in TOR, VTP, and generated qualification run report.
  • Qualifygui truncates report file before start of each qualification run.
  • A definition of test case dependencies has been added to the VTP.

GUI

  • Results Viewer now shows the number of times a function is called on the WCET path in the contributions table. See screenshot.
  • Better message output for analysis with additional starts. Analysis steps for one additional start are grouped together with additional start name in header in message view.
  • It is now possible to create multiple analyses at once, from the Symbols or Functions views. See screenshot.
  • The GUI highlights the exact location of an AIS parse error if possible.
  • Now supporting XML report file for "Control Flow Visualizer".
  • XTC: added support for additional aiT option xml_style_sheet.

AIS

  • It is now possible to modify register contents in speculative contexts by means of an AIS2 annotation: 
    instruction <pp> enter|exit with speculatively: ... ;
  • Access annotations for specific base registers are no longer supported. Examples: 
    global accesses restrict for base r10 to 0x1000..0x1fff;
instruction 0x1000 accesses 0x1000..0x1fff for base r10;

Decoding

  • Code duplication support for ARC, C33, H8, MPC5xx, MPC55xx, MPC56xx, PPC, TriCore, and x86.
  • Improved support for delay slots.
  • Delay slots will be code-duplicated for true and false edges (if not annulled) to allow for higher analysis precision.
  • Improved decoding algorithm to reconstruct control flow graph.
  • Improved decoding statistics:
    • Loops no longer count as routines.
    • Code-duplicated instructions are counted separately.
  • Improved decoding if mixed branch/call to same routine occur.
  • Improved "target is not analyzed" annotation.
  • Improved diagnostic messages for conflicting AIS annotations: now linking to both AIS annotations in question.
  • Improve loop type detection for architectures with delay slots or guarded execution.
  • Added message numbers to output of unresolved computed calls and branches.
  • Better handling of unresolved computed branches inside loops by loop transformation. They will now be included into the loop for better visualization.
  • ARM:
    • Added support for the ARM/Thumb VFPv3-D16 instruction set extension.
    • Improved automatic resolving of switch tables (Thumb and GCC).
  • C166: model traps as routine calls.
  • C33: corrected memory sizes in AIS annotations.
  • M68020:
    • Fixed wrong decoding of the “DIVS.L <ea>, Dr:Dq” instruction. The wrong bits were extracted for the divisor operand, such that the extension word that is part of the divisor operand was erroneously decoded as an instruction of its own.
    • Fixed missing distinction between “DIVS.L <ea>, Dq” and “DIVSL.L <ea>, Dr:Dq”.
  • PPC: Support for HighTec GCC.
  • Improved automatic resolving of switch tables (DiabData) and computed calls in general.
  • Improve simplified mnemonics for VLE instructions.
  • Support for extended PPC ISA sc/sync instructions, such as “sc 1”, “sync 1”, and “sync 2”.
  • SPARC:
    • Minor changes in assembly string for better readability.
    • trap_negative is not interpreted as a function call anymore.
  • TriCore: improved support for HighTec GCC.
  • V850: support for HighTec GCC.
  • x86: better support for GCC.
  • The supported instruction set is that of the P5 architecture until the P54C implementation of Pentium, plus a few more modern instructions.

Stack and value analysis

  • Improved StackAnalyzer precision by defaulting to max-length = 2.
  • StackAnalyzer will compute the maximum usages for the individual stacks (e.g. user stack, system stack,…) separately.
  • XML report for StackAnalyzer now contains additional information such as the stack layout of the architecture.
  • Busy-waiting loops without volatile annotation found are no longer warnings.
  • Speculative accesses for infeasible blocks now show up in the context-insensitive access information of the text and xml reports.
  • Improved precision of feasibility check for the targets of conditional and computed control flow transitions, e.g. switch tables.
  • Improved loop-bound diagnostic messages, now linking to the AIS annotations that have an effect on the loop in question.
  • Improved precision of warnings issued by consistency checks for contents of memory cells annotated as constant.
  • Improved error messages for stack modifying loops.
  • Improved loop range computation.
  • Improved error messages for contradictions of analyzed value with specified value, now including AIS annotation location.
  • Improved comments about accessed symbols/variables in text report file.
  • ARM:
    • Improved stack analysis for GNU C/C++ compiler.
    • Support ARM/Thumb VFPv3-D16 instruction set extension.
  • C28x:
    • A [?] is printed to the report file instead of [X..Y] if Y-X >= 4*64k (i.e. the interval spans over 19 bits of address space).
    • The analyses themselves use the interval [X..Y].
  • PPC: improved stack analysis if frame pointer is used by the compiler.
  • TriCore: improved loop analysis.
  • V850
    • Improved loop analysis.
    • Improved StackAnalyzer precision for GHS compiler.
    • Improved branch splitting if addi is used as a compare instruction.
  • x86
    • The supported instruction set is that of the P5 architecture until the P54C implementation of Pentium, plus a few more modern instructions.
    • Improve stack analysis precision for GCC compiled binaries (support frame pointer save + restore).

Cache and pipeline analysis

  • Improved prevision of cache analysis in general.
  • Improved detection of possible state explosions.
  • aiT for MPC55xx, LEON2, MPC56xx, and MPC603e can now take cache-related preemption costs into account. This is done by the so-called Useful–Cache-Block analysis.
  • C33: corrected pipeline behaviour for delay slots in slow memory.
  • MPC603e: added support for e300 instruction fetch burst extension.
  • MPC755s/PPC750/MPC603e/MPC7448s:
    • Improved memory consumption of generic MCU model.
    • Add support for different burst length values for SDR IC accesses.
    • Implemented non-ECC. Implemented configurable ECC width (8, 16, 32, 64 bits).
  • MPC7448(s): removed unsupported DRTRY Mode Option from GUI.
  • TriCore TC1796: improved handling of stores to cached EBU memory.
  • Tricore TC1797: improved analysis behavior in terms of memory consumption and computation time.

Visualization and reporting

  • Execution count of routines on the WCET path is now exported to the XML report file as "count" attribute (global and per context).
  • UCB analysis results are now exported to the XML report file.