Novilit's AnyWare 2.0 Reduces Communications Protocol Development Time as much as 80% and Eliminates Need to Rewrite and Recompile Code.Business Editors/High Tech Writers MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2002 Powerful state machine technology finds holes and duplicate entries; dynamic message flow display reduces debugging time as well as system integration time and effort Novilit, Inc., the leading provider of embedded communications protocol Hardware and software standards that govern data transmission between computers. The term "protocol" is very generic and is used for hundreds of different communications methods. A protocol may define the packet structure of the data transmitted or the control commands that manage the technologies and services, today announced version 2.0 of the Novilit Protocol AnyWare development environment. This latest product revision significantly enhances any embedded systems Embedded systems Computer systems that cannot be programmed by the user because they are preprogrammed for a specific task and are buried within the equipment they serve. development project that includes the incorporation of communications protocols. Two key features within AnyWare 2.0, a powerful state machine definition technology along with a message flow debugging tool, further enhance its ability to reduce overall protocol development time by as much as 80% and eliminate the need to rewrite and recompile To compile a program again. A program is recompiled after a change has been made to it in order to test and run the revised version. Programs are recompiled many times during the course of development and maintenance. See compile. code. Axel Tillmann, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. and president of Novilit, noted, "There are a number of conflicting design challenges that are putting enormous pressure on the communications industry communications industry, broadly defined, the business of conveying information. Although communication by means of symbols and gestures dates to the beginning of human history, the term generally refers to mass communications. today---higher processing speeds, increasingly complex protocols, and the need to reduce costs and extend development over a wider range of performance points. When these challenges are combined with the plethora of communications protocols being used across the spectrum of network devices--from mobile handsets to telematics components and LAN/WAN LAN/WAN Local Area Network/Wide Area Network systems--the ability to maximize the efficiency and performance of the protocols embedded in these devices is a must for any successful product implementation." "We have already established ourselves as providing the first design technology created specifically for embedding communications protocols, using any commercially available RTOS (1) (RealTime Operating System) An operating system designed for use in a real time computer system. See real time system, embedded system, process control and OS-9. , in software, hardware or firmware," continued Tillmann. "With the introduction of AnyWare 2.0, we are addressing the shortcomings A shortcoming is a character flaw. Shortcomings may also be:
In traditional embedded system Any electronic system that uses a CPU chip, but that is not a general-purpose workstation, desktop or laptop computer. Such systems generally use microprocessors, or they may use custom-designed chips or both. development environments, modifying C source code requires the code to be fully tested and recompiled each time it is rewritten. Also, there are no provisions within C source code to perform formal analysis to identify holes or duplicate entries in state tables. Both of these shortcomings result in multiple quality assurance cycles that significantly increase the overall time required to develop and implement embedded protocols. Novilit's new state machine technology eliminates the problems associated with unresolved or duplicate entries in complex state machine entries. The feature also allows users to define an unlimited number of states and state events in n x m-dimensional tables with ease. Along with the new state machine definition technology, Novilit has created the Novilit Language Debug To correct a problem in hardware or software. Debugging software means locating the errors in the source code (the program logic). Debugging hardware means finding errors in the circuit design (logical circuits) or in the physical interconnections of the circuits. (NLDebug) tool. This tool significantly reduces debug time by dynamically displaying the message flows among all active protocol entities including subprotocols, user Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and hardware entities, as well as by showing the intercommunication in·ter·com·mu·ni·cate intr.v. in·ter·com·mu·ni·cat·ed, in·ter·com·mu·ni·cat·ing, in·ter·com·mu·ni·cates 1. To communicate with each other. 2. To be connected or adjoined, as rooms or passages. between the stimulus and the unit under test. In addition, system integration time and effort are reduced by standardizing the interfaces between internal and external components. David Burrage, director of engineering for Echo Engineering Group, Inc., (Newton, Mass.), specialists in developing network protocols and other software for UNIX systems, noted, "We're pleased with the ease and facility with which we were able to develop a Resilient Packet Ring See RPR. (RPR (Resilient Packet Ring) A packet-based protocol that provides fault tolerance and statistical multiplexing for the metropolitan and national SONET and Ethernet networks of the carriers. ) MAC-layer protocol stack using Novilit's Protocol AnyWare. In a relatively short time, compared to traditional protocol development tools and methodologies, AnyWare allowed us to describe the various components of the RPR MAC layer and to develop a functional RPR stack. "Leveraging what we feel is the most powerful aspect of Novilit's product--the ability to quickly change a protocol stack implementation--we were able to maintain our RPR code easily," Burrage added. "Because the RPR specification (IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York, www.ieee.org) A membership organization that includes engineers, scientists and students in electronics and allied fields. 802.17) was changing throughout our protocol development, we had to make frequent modifications to the various packet formats and the state machine behavior. Updating our stack with AnyWare was much more efficient than what we have experienced with traditional protocol stack development methods." About AnyWare 2.0 AnyWare 2.0 is Novilit's next-generation development environment for embedded communications protocols. Novilit's patented technology includes system-level design tools that enable designers to implement protocols using any commercially available RTOS in hardware, software or firmware. The two main components of AnyWare are the Communication Machine Definition Language (CMDL CMDL Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory CMDL Common Mission Data Loader ) and Communication Machine Development Engine (CMDE CMDE Comité des Médecins à Diplôme Étranger CMDE Chargé de Mission Défense Économique (France) CMDE Countermeasures Dispensing Equipment CMDE Central Management/Distributed Execution ). CMDL is an easy-to-learn, easy-to-use high-level definition language provided by Novilit for describing protocols. CMDE, a multi-stage compiler, automatically turns CMDL protocol descriptions into working code. To develop a protocol stack with AnyWare, embedded designers only need to convert the protocol specification into the CMDL syntax and then run CMDE to automatically generate the target code (C, C++, Assembler, Java, or Verilog/VHDL) that is then synthesized without any further modification. The resulting code can then be immediately integrated into the code base. AnyWare 2.0 includes new state machine definition technology and a message flow debugging program to reduce overall debug time and eliminate the need to rewrite and recompile code. AnyWare 2.0 is available immediately and is priced at $39,000 for a single developer and $98,000 for a team development environment that includes support for four developers. About Novilit Inc. Novilit, Inc., provides the industry's first design technology created specifically for embedding communications protocols in software, hardware or firmware. Novilit's patented technology advances are embodied in the company's flagship product, the Novilit Protocol AnyWare development environment. Targeted for use by embedded system developers and engineers developing protocols for use in networking and communications platforms, AnyWare reduces the cost, resources required and time to market for wired, wireless, terrestrial and satellite systems. Founded in 1998, the company's headquarters are located at 230 Maple Street, Marlborough, Mass., 01752; telephone: (508) 485-0050, http://www.novilit.com. |
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