Optimize Execution Time with Confidence: Introducing AbsInt’s TimingProfiler

In today’s embedded software development landscape, timing performance is more critical than ever. Whether you're developing systems for automotive ECUs, avionics control, or industrial automation, ensuring optimal execution time is key to functionality, safety, and user experience. However, timing issues are notoriously difficult to detect and resolve—especially in early development stages when the physical hardware is not yet available. This is where TimingProfiler, a powerful tool from AbsInt, steps in.

The Challenge: Timing Bottlenecks in Modern Embedded Systems

Embedded systems developers often struggle with understanding how their implementation decisions affect execution timing. Without adequate insight, late-stage integration may reveal performance issues that are expensive and time-consuming to fix. Traditional timing analysis methods, such as measurement on physical hardware or manual code instrumentation, require significant effort and introduce their own limitations.

In contrast, TimingProfiler allows developers to address timing behavior proactively and continuously—starting as soon as compiled code is available, even in model-based or hardware-independent development environments.

What is TimingProfiler?

TimingProfiler is a static analysis tool that helps software teams detect, understand, and improve the execution-time characteristics of embedded applications. It provides worst-case execution time (WCET) estimates and visualizes control and call flow graphs enriched with timing information.

Unlike more formal tools like AbsInt’s aiT, which compute hard WCET bounds based on detailed processor models, TimingProfiler is designed to provide fast, practical timing estimates for a slightly idealized CPU model. This makes it an excellent fit for early development phases and agile workflows.

Why Use TimingProfiler?

TimingProfiler bridges the gap between performance analysis and development agility. Here’s how it helps development teams:

• No Physical Hardware Needed: Timing analysis can be performed without access to a target board. This is especially helpful when working on new hardware platforms or during parallel development cycles.
• Zero Instrumentation: The tool does not rely on runtime instrumentation or debug information. This avoids performance impact and simplifies setup.
• Immediate Feedback: Developers gain real-time insights into how code changes affect performance. This supports better architectural decisions and quicker iteration.
• Automatic Path Exploration: TimingProfiler explores all execution paths and accounts for all potential inputs—something manual test-based methods can’t guarantee.
• Scalable Integration: The tool fits smoothly into continuous integration (CI) and test automation environments, supporting modern DevOps workflows for embedded systems.
• Visualization Capabilities: The graphical display of call and control flow graphs, annotated with timing data, enables developers to quickly identify and focus on performance bottlenecks.
• Improved Design Decisions: Teams can optimize software architecture early, avoiding costly refactors at the final stages of development.

Supported Architectures and Compilers

TimingProfiler supports a wide range of architectures used in embedded applications:

• TriCore / AURIX (Tasking / GCC)
• PowerPC (Diab / GCC / GHS / CodeWarrior)
• NEC / Renesas V850 and RH850 (GHS / Diab)
• ARM Cortex-M and Cortex-R (TI / ARM / GCC / GHS / Tasking / Keil MDK-ARM)
• LEON2 / LEON3 (GCC / GNAT)

Support for additional targets is available upon request, ensuring flexibility for a variety of industries and use cases.

Practical Applications Across Industries

TimingProfiler is already being used in sectors where execution-time guarantees are essential:

• Automotive: For validating ECUs and AUTOSAR-based software stacks under ISO 26262.
• Aerospace: In early avionics software design under DO-178C compliance.
• Industrial Systems: In robotics, energy control systems, and factory automation—where real-time performance and determinism are vital.

By helping developers make timing-aware decisions throughout the development lifecycle, TimingProfiler minimizes the risk of late-stage surprises and ensures that embedded software performs as expected in the field.

Summary: A Strategic Tool for Timing Assurance

As embedded systems become more complex, the demand for tools that support efficient, timing-aware development continues to grow.
AbsInt’s TimingProfiler offers an elegant, scalable solution to this challenge—empowering developers to monitor, analyze, and optimize execution time from day one.

Whether you're building safety-critical control systems or simply want to ensure snappy response times, TimingProfiler is an essential part of your software quality toolkit. And when used in combination with AbsInt’s aiT or StackAnalyzer, it becomes part of a comprehensive static analysis suite—ensuring that your code is not only functionally correct but also safe, efficient, and performant.