Writing diagnostic software in Ada
Peter van der Linden · ACM SIGAda Ada Letters · 1984
When a new computer architecture is built, one of the first softwar e products written to accompany it will be a hardware diagnostic suite .This is a package of programs which executes on the new hardware an d attempts to confirm the correct operation of the system, or alternativel y indicate any component which is failing .The diagnostic suite will b e used both internally by the manufacturer's hardware design team i n engineering development, and by end users who wish to check th e commissioning or continued operation of their system .This paper describes the VERIFY 432 package, which was substantiall y written in Ada, and which evaluates the hardware status of an HIS 43 2 board system or an integrated MULTIBOX computer .Some interestin g observations are made on the possibility of building a knowledge bas e into this software, to upgrade to an expert system .A hardware diagnostic package would usually be written in a low-leve l language, perhaps even utilising special-purpose microcode functions .However, our experience demonstrated that Ada is suitable fo r implementing this kind of testing suite, and has many features whic h especially facilitate more general systems programming .Some of th e particular advantages of using Ada are pointed out, as well as areas i n which the language could have provided more assistance than it did .