GOVERNMENT

Extensive Capabilities Optimized for Intel Compiler Also Reduce Development Cost by 40%: TotalView Technologies, the leading provider of interactive analysis and debugging tools for serial and parallel codes, today announced that CAS, Inc. has chosen to use the TotalView Debugger for development of its Air and Missile Defense modeling and simulation programs created for the Department of Defense (DoD). Since implementing the TotalView Debugger, the company has achieved a 60 to 70 % reduction in development time, along with a 40 % reduction in total program cost. CAS, Inc. specializes in a full range of weapon system support and analysis. When awarded a five-year contract from the DoD to support Air and Missile Defense programs, the company was tasked with providing performance data and high-fidelity simulations that demonstrate how Air and Missile Defense systems interact with other weapons. In building these simulation programs, the DoD required that all development tools be compatible with the Intel Compiler, FORTRAN and C++ running on a Linux platform. CAS identified the TotalView Debugger as the only product on the market that met every requirement for successful development in the challenging multi-threaded environment found in many of the high-performance computing systems used in the creation of sophisticated defense simulation programs. “The ability to port code, and to watch and test on two different platforms side-by-side in real-time using the TotalView Debugger, dramatically cut our development time,” said Jim Knoblach, modeling and simulation department manager for CAS, Inc. “The only other alternative was to use multiple debugging tools, which is not optimal when it comes to cost or efficiency. The TotalView Debugger didn’t only meet all of our needs, it was also a very robust tool that was easy to use and gave us great confidence.” CAS models and simulations run on several different high-performance computing platforms and are written in various languages, and TotalView’s multi-language support allowed all developers to effectively use the system without extra tools. TotalView’s comprehensive feature set of complete thread control, conditional break points, memory usage, heap status and memory leak detection also improved software reliability by more than 50 percent, and its streamlined user interface enabled developers to quickly identify bugs by providing visibility into thread creation and manipulation of threads without recompiling the program. The TotalView Debugger, a comprehensive source code debugger, dramatically enhances and simplifies the process of debugging parallel, data-intensive, multi-process, multi-threaded or network-distributed applications. Built to handle the complexities of the world’s most demanding applications, TotalView offers a number of advanced features that help speed development and eliminate bugs quickly. It also provides visibility into thread creation and grouping via a full graphical user interface, giving developers the ability to analyze bugs to identify the root cause of problems and manipulate threads as needed. “TotalView’s advanced features for multi-threaded debugging are designed to accommodate developers working in even the most challenging high-performance environments,” said Chris Gottbrath, product manager at TotalView Technologies. “Bug-free programs are critical to defense system support, and because TotalView allows developers to precisely control each individual program thread and more accurately troubleshoot bugs over a range of languages and systems, it has become a valuable resource for our customers like CAS, Inc. that are working with the government.” For additional information about how CAS, Inc. used the TotalView Debugger, read the case study on the TotalView Technologies web site at: www.totalviewtech.com/Datasheets/CAS.pdf.