Debugging Debug
By Brian Bailey, Semiconductor Engineering
Can time spent in debug be reduced?
There appears to be an unwritten law about the time spent in debug-it is a constant.
It could be that all gains made by improvements in tools and methodologies are offset by increases in complexity, or that the debug process causes design teams to be more conservative. It could be that no matter how much time spent on debug, the only thing accomplished is to move bugs to places that are less damaging to the final product. Or maybe that the task requires an unusual degree of intuition plus logical thinking.
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It is better that bugs are never created. “Improvements can be made to debug, but a lot more must be done to avoid errors,” says Sergio Marchese, technical marketing manager for OneSpin Solutions. “When we fail with that, we need to be detecting errors sooner and in simpler contexts. Somewhat ironically, the good news is that safety and security requirements are indirectly forcing companies to take this direction.”
