Re: Development Tools

["John R Pierce" <pierce@hogranch.com>]

> I would like to hear about anyones experiences with PCI analyzers and
> exercisers. Specifically HP16500 analyzer with the FuturePlus Systems
> preprocessor.

I've used those in several incarnations, been quite useful to me as a software
engineer specializing in device drivers.	

I actually preferred the 1660C (?)  analyzer over the 16550B (again, ? not sure
the exact model numbers), the front panel keyboard on the 1660C is far easier
to use than the dreaded touchscreen on the 16500.  A mouse can help too.

I've mostly used this for things like timing analysis of io drivers, seeing how
bursting is working, fine tuning things.  But its also been useful for reverse
engineering i/o ports of 3rd party devices, finding really nasty real time
bugs, and other such.   I know the hardware engineers get good mileage out of
it too for finding hw level incompatibilities, and debugging PCI bus interface
designs...

-jrp
p”„