Kode Vicious Bugs Out

ABSTRACT

Dear KV, I'm on a small team that is building a custom, embedded, consumer device that is due out by Christmas. Of course the schedule is tight and there are make-or-break dates that if we miss basically mean the product will never make it to market. Not the most fun environment in which to have problems. The software was carefully specified and laid out and then simulated while the hardware was being manufactured. Now we have real hardware, and real problems as well. Aside from the timing issues we found when we were no longer running the software in a simulator, several bugs remain that show up only under very special circumstances and that disappear when I use the debugger or turn on the logging code built into the system. When tools fail you like this, what do you do next?

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.0 General
      D.1.m Miscellaneous
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.4 Software/Program Verification
      D.2.5 Testing and Debugging