Klocwork Introduces New Capabilities for Multicore and Multiprocessor Software Development

Source code analysis technology extended to address endian and concurrency coding issues

Embedded Systems Conference Boston, Boston, Mass. – Sep 20, 2010 – Klocwork, Inc., the global leader in automated source code analysis solutions for improving developer productivity, today announced new capabilities to help software developers overcome the challenges of multicore and multiprocessor development.

The growth in multicore and multiprocessor architectures is being driven by demand for more sophisticated feature sets, advanced user interfaces, and perpetual connectivity in next-generation embedded devices. According to data from VDC Research, use of multicore and/or multiprocessor designs is expected to grow by almost 75% in the next two years. Their data also shows that multicore and multiprocessor software projects are 4.5X more expensive, have 25% longer schedules, and require almost 3X as many software engineers. These business impacts are driving software teams to search for advanced development tools to contain and reduce these costs and associated risks.

"Our data shows that software projects using multicore and/or multiprocessor architectures have become larger, longer, and farther behind schedule than those utilizing single processor designs," says Chris Rommel, Senior Analyst, Embedded Software & Tools Practice, VDC Research. "Combined with the fact that software engineers are generally underwhelmed with the development tools that can handle this level of complexity, Klocwork's new capabilities should be a welcome addition to the mix."

Klocwork's static analysis engine, Klocwork Truepath™, has been enhanced to address two critical issues related to multicore and multiprocessor development:

• Endian incompatibilities - Heterogeneous processor architectures require developers to ensure that their data interaction with the target processor is in the proper endian format. This is a costly and complicated problem when developing on large systems with multiple processors or during a porting effort. Klocwork's new analysis capabilities will flag instances where data is being transmitted to or from the target without being transformed.
• Concurrency defects - Multicore development can present challenges to software developers when ensuring parallel processes don't conflict with one another. Software deadlocks are an example of the type of issues developers need to deal with in this domain. These issues are difficult to identify and reproduce but with Klocwork's new analysis capabilities, developers can analyze the whole program space to identify situations where potential conflicts occur.

"We have been working closely with our largest customers to deliver these new capabilities to facilitate high-quality software development in next-generation architectures," says Mike Laginski, Chief Executive Officer, Klocwork. "The message from these customers has been clear - multicore and multiprocessor devices are now a fundamental part of their development, and they require sophisticated tools to manage this complexity and risk."

These new capabilities will be generally available as part of Klocwork Insight™ 9.2 in October 2010.

For more information:

• Download a copy of VDC Research's new report Next Generation Embedded Hardware Architectures: Driving Onset of Project Delays, Cost Overruns, and Software Development Challenges here.
• Get deeper, more technical insight into how Klocwork addresses endian and concurrency issues by downloading our latest white paper, authored by CTO Gwyn Fisher. Mr. Fisher will also be speaking at ESC Boston, September 21 at 12:45pm in Room 109.

About Klocwork

Klocwork® offers a portfolio of development productivity tools designed to ensure the security, quality and maintainability of complex code bases. Using proven static analysis technology, Klocwork's tools identify critical security vulnerabilities and quality defects, optimize peer code review, and help developers create more maintainable code. Klocwork's tools are an integral part of the development process for over 700 customers in the consumer electronics, mobile devices, medical technologies, telecom, military and aerospace sectors.