Kithara Kernel Tracer

Multi-Source Real-time Tracer

By using Kithara Kernel Tracer it is possible to trace and log internal processes of real-time applications in detail. During program development effective tools are necessary, for example for debugging. Until now, debuggers were mostly used on this. But concerning multithread-programming a debugger is often limited in use, because it has an effect on the process. If you use more than one thread and a PC with multiple CPUs (multi-processor systems, Hyper-Threading and dual-core/multi-core, e. g. AMD Athlon 64 X2 or Intel Core Duo) simultaneously, the result of the program process dependens on the capability to execute particular program parts at the same time. A debugger cannot assure this. Well-known problems:

By using a debugger the whole process becomes mixed up.
A program runs not as expected, but by using a debugger erverything works.
The debugger has not the capability to work in a real-time context.

The solution is a tracer tool, that is able to log the actual process of simultanious routines and analyse the log.

Brief description

Kithara Kernel Tracer is a multi-source real-time message logger. It supports debugging, quality assurance, and in general detecting relations, which are otherwise indeterminate. Kithara Kernel Tracer gathers every trace message, that arises from different sources of the system in the order of their appearance. Messages from different sources appear actually on different tabs, but it is possible to merge them.

Kithara Kernel Tracer is able to handle hundreds of thousands of messages per second. In order to find the important information in the huge amount of data, Kithara Kernel Tracer provides several mechanisms to filter and search messages. It provides amazing insights in the actual processes of a PC, for example at the kernel level. Besides the illustration through Kithara functions you have the possibility to create messages on your own, which can be illustrated with useful additional information.

Features of Kithara Kernel Tracer in Detail:

Multi-source: Support of any number of threads and any routines from application and kernel level (real-time)
Multi-core: Accurate allocation of messages from several CPUs (with SMP, hyper-thread, Multi-Core, etc.) according to the time point they were generated
High processing speed (hundreds of thousands of messages per second possible, if performance available)
Every function call of Kithara RealTime Suite is illustrated by function arguments
User-specific messages can be generated by tools of Kithara RealTime Suite (similar to printf with C, C++)
Messages are illustrated with a lot of details: Including the system time in a 0.1 microsecond resolution
It is possible to filter, merge, save and reload messages
Filtering enabled: Permanent deleting, transient hiding, bold, cursive and colored illustration of messages.
Colored illustration enables accentuation of errors and warnings
Filtering messages either from a single source or globally
Further context details: Logical CPU, thread and/or process-ID, real-time task-ID, consecutive message number and type, thread and task priority, content of data blocks (of selected messages)
Search for messages by text, date and all other fields
Messages masks prevent unnecessary generation of non-required messages
Messages were saved across BSOD (Crash-Dump will be automatically scanned)
Different coloring for different processes, threads and task for better discovery
Possibility to change messages afterwards (text, foreground and background color) for documentation
Possibility to switch the programmed filters on and off
Possibility to show and hide data columns
Possibility to monitor USB, UART, CAN and network devices specifically
Memory viewer to visualize the physical memory
PCI viewer for analyzing the PCI devices
Provided SDK facilitates the programming of own trace sources

Customized Messages

You can forward your own messages to the tracer, for example to display variable contents or signalling the occurrence of special program states. The tools of Kithara RealTime Suite provide the function KS_logMessage and KS_vprintK for it. KS_logMessage can be used from all supported languages; KS_vprintK uses an argument list and therefore can be controlled by C and C++.