Method and system for loading and confirming correct operation of an application program in a target system

• US 5,715,387 A
• Filed: 11/01/1996
• Issued: 02/03/1998
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Research In Motion Limited (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Linkert, Barry W., Barnstijn, Michael A., Lazaridis, Mihal, Church, Mark E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hua, Ly
• Application Number:
  US08/742,632
• Time in Patent Office: 459 Days
• Field of Search: 395/183.14, 395/705, 395/183.18, 395/704, 395/427, 395/497.02
• US Class Current: 714/38.12
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software

Abstract

A method and system provides a special purpose or embedded system developer with the ability to confirm the correct operation of a computer program designed to operate on a target system whose processing and storage capabilities may be more austere than the host system upon which the computer program is designed and tested. A key feature of the method and the system enables a developer to execute and debug an application program on a host system while observing and testing the operation of the program through the input/output of the target system. Another feature of the method and system is an application loader that dynamically sizes and, as necessary, reconfigures the available memory to permit multiple applications to reside simultaneously on the target system by resolving addresses in the target system at the time an application of interest is downloaded to the target system.

Claims

1. A method of downloading and embedding a trial application program from a host system into a target system via a communication channel linking the two systems, wherein the trial application program contains unresolved address references that are not associated with specific memory locations of the target system, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) the host system interrogating the target system'"'"'s program and data memory via the communication channel in order to determine the specific memory locations of the target system'"'"'s memory space where the trial application may be embedded;

(b) based on the interrogation step, the host system further resolving the address references of the trial application program into memory specific address references associated with the target system'"'"'s memory space; and

(c) downloading the trial application program that includes the resolved address references from the host system to the target system via the communication channel, thereby embedding the trial application into specific memory locations of the target system'"'"'s memory space.

2. A method of loading a relocatable program having unresolved address references from a host system to a target system, comprising the steps of:

(a) establishing a communication link between the host and target systems;

(b) determining the storage requirements of the program to be loaded into the target system;

(c) interrogating the target system to determine the available memory capacity of the target;

(d) if the available memory capacity of the target system is greater than or equal to the storage requirements of the program, then;

(d)(1) calculating memory specific address references for the program based on the interrogation step;

(d)(2) modifying the program by converting the unresolved address references to memory specific address references; and

(d)(3) loading the modified application from the host system to the target system via the communication link.

3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising the steps of:

(e) if the available memory capacity of the target system is less than the storage requirements of the program, then;

(e)(1) determining whether there would be sufficient memory capacity in the target system if other programs already loaded into the target system are removed;

(e)(2) if there would not be sufficient memory capacity after programs are removed, then generating a warning message; and

(e)(3) if there would be sufficient memory capacity then selecting a program already loaded into the target system for deletion, deleting the selected program from the target system'"'"'s memory, and returning to step (d).

4. A system for downloading and storing a relocatable program having unresolved address references from a host system to a target system via a communication link, comprising:

means for interrogating the target system in order to determine the available memory capacity of the target;

means for determining whether the program can be stored in the available memory capacity of the target;

means for converting the unresolved address references of the program into memory specific address references based upon the memory capacity of the target; and

means for downloading and storing the converted program to the memory of the target via the communication link.

5. A system for loading a relocatable program having unresolved address references comprising:

a host system;

a target system;

a communications link connecting the host and target systems; and

an application loader program executing on the host system that communicates with the target system via the communication link, determines the status of the target system'"'"'s memory, converts the unresolved address references of the relocatable program into resolved address references based upon the status of the target system'"'"'s memory, and loads the resolved program into the target system.