Observation tool for signal processing components

• US 20050144587A1
• Filed: 02/23/2005
• Published: 06/30/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: DataCloud Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: DataCloud Technologies, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Inventors: Bryant, Jeffrey F.
• Application Number:
  US11/063,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20050144587A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/111
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3051 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the configuration of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring the presence of processing resources, peripherals, I/O links, software programs verification or detection of system hardware configuration G06F11/2247
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/328 Computer systems status display G06F11/327 takes precedence

Abstract

A method for operating a system having a plurality of software components includes an observation tool in the form of a control panel that is first attached to one of the components. The control panel then configures itself based on information derived from the component. The configuration consists of the discovery of all the externally accessible attributes of the component and the properties of the attributes such as name, data type, legal value and the like. The user may then effect changes in the component using this common mechanism. Since components have a common interface, an observation tool may interact with any component.

Claims

1. A method for operating a system having a plurality of components comprising the steps of:

attaching a control means to one of said components of the system;

and causing said control means to configure itself based on information derived from said component;

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means has a parameters display and said parameter display is configured based on parameters discovered from the component

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means has a plot menu and said plot menu is selected based on plots indicated to be present in the component.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means has statistics and said statistics are populated based on statistics indicated to be present in the component.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means is adapted to capture output data generated by a component and display the data in a predetermined format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the control means interrogates the components connections and navigates to the connected component.

7. Apparatus for observing the operation of a system having a plurality of software components, comprising:

an observation tool adapted to observe the operation of a component;

an application for coupling said observation tool to a preselected software component for monitoring a predetermined function thereof; and

,

a display for visually presenting a representation of the monitored function.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said predetermined function includes parameters of said preselected software component, and wherein said display presents the monitored parameters.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein said monitoring application queries said preselected component to discover the parameters associated with said preselected software component.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said observation tool includes a plot function and wherein said display presents a plot of said monitored function.

11. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said observation tool includes means for gathering statistics based on the operation of said preselected software component.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein said monitoring application queries said predetermined software component to ascertain what statistics are available thereat.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein said observation tool includes means for capturing output data from said preselected software component and wherein said display presents the captured output data in a predetermined format.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, and further including an interrogator coupled to said observation tool for interrogating the connections associated with said components and for causing said observation tool to navigate to said preselected software component.