American Arium has updated its flagship debugger for ARM-architecture processors, adding Linux shared libraries debug support for ARM7, ARM9, ARM11, Intel XScale, and TI OMAP cores. SourcePoint 6.2.1 is free to supported users of several Arium hardware debuggers and port analyzers, such as the LC-500 JTAG debugger… pictured.

The SourcePoint 6.2.1 software package is available for Windows or Linux development hosts. It works in conjunction with Arium's LC-500 JTAG debugger, and with its SC-1000A, GT-1000, and GT-1000D (pictured at right) trace port analyzers.

According to American Arium, SourcePoint 6.2.1's Linux shared libraries support is activated automatically whenever the process executable contains an ELF .dynamic section. During activation, symbols are loaded for the dynamic linker named in the ELF .interp section. The dynamic linker resolves shared library symbol references at runtime. It also provides hooks that enable a debugger to track the loading and unloading of shared libraries in the local process. SourcePoint uses the macro-on-breakpoint mechanism to provide appropriate symbol handling, the company says.

Additional new features in SourcePoint 6.2.1 include multi-processor support for ARM11 cores, and two new commands for uploading and downloading files between the host and Linux-based development targets. Other claimed features for embedded Linux developers include:

• Full symbolic, source-level debugging of Linux kernel code
• Source-level debugging of Linux embedded applications, including the ability to start or stop a Linux process, attach to a process, view source and symbols for a process, and set breakpoints within a process
• The use of specialized breakpoints to stop the execution of a process without stopping the processor or causing it to enter debug mode
• Debug of relocatable/dynamically-loaded kernel modules
• Hosting of Linux console devices from within SourcePoint, eliminating the need for a serial port or video device on the target and simplifying the debugging of “headless systems”

CEO Larry Traylor stated, “SourcePoint allows users to see the source code in shared libraries and to update their libraries separately from the applications that use them, even while the applications are running programs using those libraries. In the world of 'Windows-like' Linux debug, SourcePoint is the only debugger with this capability.”

Availability

SourcePoint 6.2.1 is available now free of charge to owners of Arium's hardware debugging products covered under a STAR-1 service agreement. A whitepaper on “Linux debug using SourcePoint” is also available, here (PDF download).

 
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