OC Systems Releases Aprobe Version 5, Extends Aprobe Software Instrumentation to...

OC Systems Releases Aprobe Version 5, Extends Aprobe Software Instrumentation
to Embedded Devices

FAIRFAX, Va., June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- OC Systems, Inc. announced the release
of Version 5 of Aprobe, the company's flagship instrumentation software.
Software engineers use Aprobe to instrument software applications in the
post-development environment. With Aprobe, they can rapidly isolate, diagnose
and resolve complex application problems that are hard to track down with
other debugging tools.

Aprobe 5 expands the platforms the software runs on to include two real-time
operating systems (RTOS): embedded Linux and Wind River's VxWorks.

"Aprobe has always been a lightweight instrumentation technology," said Oliver
Cole, president and CEO of OC Systems. "Its footprint was already quite small.
But with this new version we have made it even smaller. Any device that runs
embedded Linux or VxWorks - including mobile phones, set-top boxes, routers
and networking equipment, industrial devices, and more - can now take
advantage of the debugging, performance tuning, and remote diagnosis and
repair capabilities in Aprobe."

Version 5 also includes two other significant enhancements:

Add and remove probes without restarting the application - Earlier versions of
Aprobe allowed engineers to add, remove and modify probes while the
application was running, as long as Aprobe was already in place, but the first
time the application was run with Aprobe a restart was required. Now the
probes can simply attach to a running application.

"So many applications must run 24/7 now," said Cole. "Our customers didn't
want to have to restart an application server to add debugging capability.
With Aprobe 5, that's no longer an issue."

Probe the Linux Kernel - Version 5 also allows engineers to insert probes into
the Linux Kernel. The probes can be added and removed without restarting the
kernel.

"In the embedded world, it is common to add code to the kernel as you are
handling interrupts and performing other privileged functions," added Cole.
"You need to debug that code along with all your other code. Aprobe 5 gives
engineers and developers the power to resolve problems wherever they occur."

Aprobe's patented instrumentation technology incorporates unique capabilities
that provide power and flexibility:
-- Software engineers can instrument applications without making any
modifications to the source code. There is no need to rebuild or
redeploy the application, reflash boards or reboot.
-- Probes can be added, removed or modified dynamically, as the
application
runs.
-- Probes can be added to the operating system and user-mode
applications.
-- Probes, which are written in C or Java, can do anything that can be
done
in C or Java.
-- Probes can be used to simulate faults and error conditions that would
be
difficult to reproduce in any other way.
-- Probes can stub out routines or force the execution of conditional
code
paths.
-- Probes can insert debug code, including logs and printfs, into a
running
system.
-- Probes can insert patches, repairing software until a new build is
available.
-- Software developers can create a library of probes that address issues
specific to a particular application.
-- Data can be collected in real-time, whenever it is needed, including
time-of-failure, application-specific logs, and performance metrics.
-- Logging is thread-safe.

Aprobe 5 is shipping now for Linux, embedded Linux, and VxWorks. OC Systems
will continue to support Aprobe 4 and earlier versions for companies that
prefer to use other operating systems, including AIX, Windows, Solaris and
OS/390.

About OC Systems

OC Systems, Inc. provides state-of-the-art software tools, development
environments, and services that its customers use to improve the performance
and operational reliability of their software applications. Customers include
Lockheed Martin, IBM, Northrop Grumman, SAS, Intel, SAIC and the U.S. Army.
Founded in 1983, the employee-owned company is based in Fairfax, Virginia.
More information may be obtained at www.ocsystems.com.

CONTACT: Judy Schramm
OC Systems, Inc.
+1-703-216-0460
jas@ocsystems.com

SOURCE OC Systems, Inc.

Judy Schramm of OC Systems, Inc., +1-703-216-0460, jas@ocsystems.com