ARM 64-bit move gets boost from Cambridge debug firm

Is the ARM 64-bit v8-A processor architecture gaining traction in the market?

By Richard Wilson; Electronicsweekly, Nov. 05, 2015 – 

UK-based development tool firm Undo believes it is and it has created a version of its novel debug too for the ARM 64-bit architecture.

The debug tool will be demonstrated at ARM TechCon when it takes place in Santa Clara, California on 10-12 November.

"Porting code across architecture is hard and debugging is the key challenge that businesses face," said Greg Law, CEO and co-founder, of Cambridge-based Undo Software.

"Software vendors need to derisk the process, reducing the potential impact of bugs finding their way into customer production code," said Law.

ARM developers should be able to get their hands on the tool in Q1 2016.

These can be used for debugging Linux and Android based designed on 64-bit ARM processors.

The firm's UndoDB reversible debugger is already integrated into ARM's DS-5 software development tools.

It can be used to allow Linux and Android programs to make a recording of themselves so that developers have a complete record of their program's execution, including the bugs that were generated during the porting process.

The attraction of this recording technique is that it includes every memory access made and every instruction executed. This can then be run through UndoDB, Undo's reversible debugger for Linux and Android.

UndoDB can be used in conjunction with GDB, ARM DS-5 or Lauterbach's TRACE32. It also allows developers to run programs backwards, as well as forwards in time, allowing them to identify fix bugs.

The ARMv8-A architecture is implemented in a range of Cortex processors.

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