The ubiquitous nature of embedded software has made source code analysis a critical component of the development process. Gwyn discusses the impact this technology has on software security and reliability, and emphasizes the importance of making static analysis a natural part of a developer’s coding practice.
ECD: As embedded developers turn to multicore processors to optimize performance, how can analysis tools help control inevitable cost and schedule problems?
FISHER: Any new development is an exercise in balancing expectation against risk. In the case of multicore, the naive expectation is always linear acceleration tempered perhaps by some jocular “wouldn’t that be nice” acceptance that the final result won’t be quite that good, but no real understanding of the reality that without significant effort (read: time, money, angst) the result might be slower than the old, interrupt-driven single-core code. So tools have a role to play in terms of helping developers understand the impact of what they’re doing, what pitfalls they’re unwittingly leaving themselves open to, and how to mitigate the associated risks.
About the Author: Lynn Gayowski
I'm the Marketing Programs Specialist for Klocwork. My hobbies include geocaching and telling too many stories about my pet rabbits. I am a two-time consecutive winner of the Royal LePage colouring contest (1983, 1984) and was a backup dancer for Luba for one performance. I aspire to visit 26 countries – one for every letter of the English alphabet. 
