SymTA/S 3.7 introduces new Ethernet timing design and verification features including the modeling and analysis of dynamic data chains and data dependent dynamic Ethernet frame packing as well as faster system distribution analysis compared to previous versions. In addition, SymTA/S 3.7 incorporates a range of new, general modeling and timing analysis features - Gantt-Filter, APIs and improved AUTOSAR 4.x multicore import. At the same time, Symtavision has announced the release of TraceAnalyzer 3.7 which is fully integrated with SymTA/S 3.7.

With the implementation of Ethernet networks becoming increasingly widespread in automotive systems, Symtavision has focused SymTA/S 3.7 on significantly strengthening its Ethernet timing analysis capabilities. SymTA/S 3.7 introduces the ability to model and analyze dynamic data chains with the data dependent execution of ECU tasks and frame transmission on Ethernet and CAN allowing the detailed analysis of the gateways between the networks.

The modeling and analysis of data dependent dynamic frame packing allows Ethernet frames to be dynamically packed based on the availability of PDU (Protocol Data Unit) data. Easier modeling of activation chaining has also been facilitated by combining the Ethernet-Trigger and Trigger elements into a single Trigger function. SymTA/S 3.7 also features improved Ethernet system distribution performance with Ethernet systems analyzing up to 2x faster than in version 3.6.

All Ethernet timing analysis functionality in SymTA/S is fully integrated with its well-established analyses for CAN, FlexRay and AUTOSAR-based ECUs, enabling end-to-end timing analysis for distributed functions via Ethernet, as well as the connection of Ethernet networks to legacy CAN and FlexRay networks via AUTOSAR or OSEK gateways.

SymTA/S 3.7 also supports a wide set of ECU communication patterns with a mixture of time-triggered, event-triggered and polling communication and software activation. SymTA/S users can now analyze gateway ECUs as well as partitioned software on multicore ECUs in high accuracy. These new modeling and analysis capabilities are complemented by new visualizations such as timing diagram views for sub-systems and software components, and a clear visualization of individual data/signal flows. The multicore support is further enhanced with a new AUTOSAR 4.0 multicore import such that users of SymTA/S 3.7 can embed timing analysis into their multicore ECU design flows easily.

Both SymTA/S 3.7 and TraceAnalyzer 3.7 provide checking execution order constraints (e.g. of AUTOSAR runnables) on the modeling level and for imported traces. Finally, TraceAnalyzer 3.7 now offers a highly flexible trace import API, which can be used through Python scripting or SOAP. With this API, TraceAnalyzer 3.7 can now be quickly integrated with virtually any ECU tracing and logging environment, and facilitates fully-automated validation of traces of any format.

“Automotive manufacturers are rapidly turning to Ethernet and multicore systems to meet their growing requirements,” said Dr. Kai Richter, CTO of Symtavision. “We collaborated tightly with both top automotive OEMs and leading universities to create our original Ethernet timing analysis solution which was well received. Our focus with SymTA/S 3.7 has been to significantly improve and strengthen our Ethernet capability to enable both OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to better plan, optimize and verify timing when introducing Ethernet. The second big focus for our 3.7 release of SymTA/S and TraceAnalyzer was multicore. I think, our 3.7 release is a really nice piece of work.”