American Arium Announces Linux Shared Libraries Debug Feature

"We're excited about our new shared libraries feature for Linux OS targets," said Larry Traylor, Arium's CEO. "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."

SourcePoint 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.

SourcePoint 6.2.1 offers additional functionality as well, including multi-processor support on processors with ARM11 cores. In addition, a new Linux file transfer feature lets developers upload a file from the target and download a file to the target via two new commands.

The Linux-aware feature of SourcePoint delivers a number of industry-leading capabilities for users who are working on Linux-based embedded systems:

--  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."
    

American Arium, a privately held corporation headquartered in Tustin, CA, is a supplier of hardware and software development tools for ARM-based processors, Intel®-architecture processors, processors based on Intel XScale technology, and several AMD 32- and 64-bit processors. American Arium tools are used worldwide to debug software in embedded applications, BIOS, device drivers, and OS kernels. The company is a member of the ARM Development Community. For more information on Arium products, call (877) 508-3970, visit www.arium.com, or contact: Jeff Acampora, 714-731-1661; jeff_acampora@arium.com.

SourcePoint is a trademark of American Arium. ARM and ARM7, ARM9, and ARM11 are trademarks or registered trademarks of ARM Ltd. Intel XScale is a registered trademark of Intel Corp. OMAP is a trademark of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners and are protected therein.

Contact:
American Arium
Jeff Acampora
714-731-1661
Email Contact
www.arium.com

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