Reverse debugging paradigm changes troubleshooting model

TotalView Technologies today announced that the Butler Group praised ReplayEngine, TotalView Technologies’ reverse debugging tool, in its Technology Audit.  The Butler Group, a leading independent IT Research and Advisory organization, provides a trusted source of independent analysis and advice with in-depth research reports on timely and complex technology, management, and strategy issues.

ReplayEngine changes the cyclic nature of traditional software debugging. The Butler Group opens the Technology Audit commenting, “The tool simplifies troubleshooting of application errors, and enables developers to work back from failures to their causes, thereby enhancing developer productivity and facilitating quick resolution of hitherto hard-to-find bugs.”

As an add-on to TotalView, ReplayEngine works within the familiar debugging environment, providing a solution well suited to distributed parallel development.  The Butler Group summarizes: “TotalView 8.7 and ReplayEngine 2.0 taken together provide comprehensive dynamic source-debugging capabilities suitable for all market segments, including HPC environments and organisations of all sizes.  The products are geared to greatly enhance developer productivity in client organisations.  Reverse debugging represents a paradigm shift in established debugging practices that has been brought about by recent technological advancements.  TotalView is one of the select few vendors that provide these capabilities at present.”

The Technology Audit positively notes in its Key Findings that “By recording execution history ReplayEngine 2.0 solves the time-consuming problem of determining failure causes.”  The concept of recording and then replaying a program’s history “enables developers to arrive at anomaly and error conditions that occurred long before actual failure by providing controlled backward execution capabilities.”

Rich Collier, TotalView Technologies’ CEO, commented, “With development organizations exploring every means possible to maximize IT investments these days, ReplayEngine provides a vital, time-saving capability for increasing developers’ effectiveness, fitting particularly well with industry business needs as a whole. We are delighted to have our own pride in this tool validated by The Butler Group’s independent third-party assessment.”

To view the full report, visit: http://www.totalviewtech.com/pdf/TotalViewReplayEngineTechAudit.pdf