Simulation reproduction apparatus, simulation reproduction method, and computer readable medium

A simulation-reproduction method of debugging software in an embedded system by simulating an operation of a hardware object in the embedded system responsive to execution of instructions of the software, the simulation reproduction method comprising:

• storing a trace file obtained by simulating the operation of the hardware object and having one or more pieces of trace data recorded therein, each piece of the trace data including an occurrence time at which a change in a state of the object has occurred and a new state value indicating a state after the state has changed;
• receiving a forward direction reproduction instruction to cause the operation of the object to be reproduced in an order of times, a temporary stop instruction to cause the operation of the hardware object to be temporarily stopped, and a reverse direction frame feed instruction to cause the state of the hardware object to be changed once in a reverse order of the times;
• reading, from the trace file, each piece of the trace data in an order of the occurrence time when the forward direction reproduction instruction is received, and reading one piece of the trace data from the trace file in a reverse order of the occurrence time when the reverse direction frame feed instruction is received;
• determining a timing for updating the graphic display based on a new display time corresponding to the occurrence time included in new trace data being the trace data read at a time and an old display time corresponding to the occurrence time included in old trace data being the trace data read last time;
• and
• changing the state of the object displayed by a graphic display to the state indicated by the new state value included in the new trace data, at the determined timing, causing the graphic display to reproduce simulated operations of the hardware object to allow a user to identify a state of the hardware object when a wrong operation occurs while debugging the software.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a simulation reproduction program using a trace file obtained by simulating an operation of a hardware object in an embedded system responsive to execution of instructions of software in the embedded system, the trace file having one or more pieces of trace data recorded therein, each piece of the trace data including an occurrence time at which a change in a state of the hardware object has occurred and a new state value indicating a state after the state has changed, the simulation reproduction program when executed by a computer to perform:

• a reception process of receiving a forward direction reproduction instruction to cause the operation of the hardware object to be reproduced in an order of times, a temporary stop instruction to cause the operation of the hardware object to be temporarily stopped, and a reverse direction frame feed instruction to cause the state of the object to be changed once in a reverse order of the times;
• a trace data reading process of reading, from the trace file, each piece of the trace data in an order of the occurrence time when the forward direction reproduction instruction is received, and reading one piece of the trace data from the trace file in a reverse order of the occurrence time when the reverse direction frame feed instruction is received;
• a timing control process of determining a timing for updating the graphic display based on a new display time corresponding to the occurrence time included in new trace data being the trace data read at a time and an old display time corresponding to the occurrence time included in old trace data being the trace data read last time;
• and
• a display process of changing the state of the hardware object displayed by the graphic display to the state indicated by the new state value included in the new trace data,
• wherein the display process is performed to reproduce simulated operations of the hardware object to allow a user to identify a state of the hardware object when a wrong operation occurs while debugging the software.