Event logger

• US 10,628,280 B1
• Filed: 02/06/2018
• Issued: 04/21/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (Northrop Grumman Corporation)
• Inventors: Reeves, Robert L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Maskulinski, Michael
• Application Number:
  US15/890,081
• Time in Patent Office: 805 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3013 where the computing system is an embedded system, i.e. a combination of hardware and software dedicated to perform a certain function in mobile devices, printers, automotive or aircraft systems testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof G05B23/02
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3017 where the computing system is implementing multitasking multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/302 where the computing system component is a software system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3476 Data logging G06F11/14, G06F11/2205 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/40 Data acquisition and logging for input to computer G06F3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/835 Timestamp
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2201/865 Monitoring of software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4812 by interrupt, e.g. masked
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues

Abstract

An application can executes a plurality of tasks and responds to interrupts. The application can include an event logger that writes data values to an event log stored in an assigned partition of memory in response to a call to the event logger, wherein the call includes an identifier of an event and parameters corresponding to the data values, and the event logger ceases further writing to the event log in response to the identifier of the event matching a predefined stop identifier.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions comprising:

an application that executes a plurality of tasks and responds to interrupts, the application comprising;

an event logger that writes data values to an event log stored in an assigned partition of memory in response to a call to the event logger, wherein the call includes an identifier of an event and parameters corresponding to the data values, wherein the event logger executes in response to one of detecting a message between a given task of the plurality of tasks and another task of the plurality of tasks, detecting a reboot of the application and a command from another system, and the event logger ceases further writing to the event log in response to the identifier of the event matching a predefined stop identifier, wherein the predefined stop identifier is one of an error condition, the reboot of the application and another command from the other system, wherein the event logger ceases further writing to the event log after a predefined number of writes based on a delay stop value corresponding to the predefined stop identifier.

2. The medium of claim 1, wherein the event logger is initialized after initiation of each of the plurality of tasks.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein the application executes the call to the event logger in response to detection of switching between a given task of the plurality of tasks and another task of the plurality of tasks.

4. The medium of claim 3, wherein the application executes a given call to the event logger in response to the given task ending and executes another call to the event logger in response to the other task starting.

5. The medium of claim 1, wherein the application executes the call to the event logger in response to a call by an interrupt service routine.

6. The medium of claim 1, wherein the application executes the call to the event logger in response to one of taking and giving a semaphore.

7. A system comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable memory that stores machine-readable instructions; and

a processing unit comprising one or more processor cores that access the memory and execute the machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions comprising;

an application comprising;

a plurality of tasks and routines to respond to interrupts, wherein each of the plurality of tasks executes a function; and

an event logger that writes entries to an event log stored in an assigned partition of memory in response to a call to the event logger, wherein the call includes an identifier of an event and a parameter corresponding to a data value, wherein the event logger executes in response to one of detecting a message between a given task of the plurality of tasks and another task of the plurality of tasks, detecting a reboot of the application and a command from another system, and the event logger ceases further writing of entries to the event log in response to the identifier of the event matching a predefined stop identifier, wherein the predefined stop identifier is one of an error condition, the reboot of the application and another command from the other system, wherein the event logger ceases further writing to the event log after a predefined number of writes based on a delay stop value corresponding to the predefined stop identifier.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the assigned partition of memory is separate from the non-transitory machine-readable memory.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the event logger writes a predetermined number of entries to the event log after the matching.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the event logger comprises:

a short-term event log comprising a circular buffer; and

a long-term event log comprising a circular buffer, wherein entries are written to the long-term event log in response to the event identifier matching a long-term event identifier.

11. The system of claim 7, further comprising:

a sensor that receives stimuli from an environment, wherein a given task of the plurality of tasks executes upon activation by an interrupt service routine (ISR) being triggered by an interrupt request (IRQ) triggered in response to the stimuli; and

an actuator that actuates an electromechanical action in response to a command from another task of the plurality of tasks, wherein the command results from an IRQ.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein an event logger call is initiated by an interrupt service routine (ISR) triggered by an interrupt request (IRQ).

13. The system of claim 7, wherein each entry in the event logger includes a timestamp.

14. The system of claim 7, wherein the system is implemented on a mobile platform.

15. The system of claim 7, wherein the application is embedded software of the processing unit.

16. A system comprising:

a programming computer comprising;

a non-transitory machine-readable memory that stores machine-readable instructions; and

a processing unit comprising one or more processor cores that access the memory and execute the machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions comprising;

a compiler that compiles source code to generate an application based on the source code, wherein the application includes a plurality of tasks, routines to respond to interrupts and an event logger; and

a controller that transmits a copy of the application to an executing computer;

the executing computer comprising;

a non-transitory machine-readable memory that stores machine-readable instructions; and

a processing unit comprising one or more processor cores that access the memory and execute the machine-readable instructions, the machine-readable instructions comprising;

the copy of the application, wherein the event logger writes data values to an event log stored in an assigned partition of memory in response to a call to the event logger, wherein the call includes an identifier of an event and parameters corresponding to the data values, wherein the identifier of an event is one of detecting a message between a given task of the plurality of tasks and another task of the plurality of tasks, detecting a reboot of the application and a command from another system, and the event logger ceases further writing to the event log in response to the identifier of the event matching a predefined stop identifier wherein the predefined stop identifier is one of an error condition, the reboot of the application and another command from the other system, wherein the event logger ceases further writing to the event log after a predefined number of writes based on a delay stop value corresponding to the predefined stop identifier;

wherein the copy of the application provides a copy of contents of the assigned memory partition to the controller of the programming computer in response to a request.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the application further executes the call to the event logger in response to detection of one of a switching between a given task of the plurality of tasks and another task of the plurality of tasks and interrupt requests.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein the event logger locks out interrupt requests in response to the event logger call.

19. The medium of claim 16, wherein the event logger writes a given entry corresponding to a given event to a short-term event log and a long-term event log and the event logger writes another entry corresponding to another event to the short-term event log and not to the long-term event log.