Connect Tech's Dump Switch Cards

Company Euroline AS
Date 29.01.2010

Drammen, Norway 29th January 2010

Debugging can be a burdensome, tiring task.  The time of developers and programmers is extremely valuable. Connect Tech's Dump Switch card provides users with insurance for their time, while increasing their productivity by eliminating the guesswork that occurs when trying to debug system hangs.  

Often software gets "locked up" and system hangs occur during lengthy test cycles.  Instead of spending hours of valuable time trying to reproduce the cause of a system hang, the Dump Switch identifies bugs at the push of a button.

How does it work?

When a system hangs or freezes during development or testing, a hardware reset will result in the loss of important system information – not to mention critical development time.  At the push of a button, the Dump Switch triggers a Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI). This Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) enables a crash dump or drops execution into your operating system's debugger preserving the information that would normally be lost during a reset.

How do you use it?

The Dump Switch card is used to debug system hangs in one of two ways:

  1. Use the native system debugger and configure it to drop into its debugger when the button on the Dump Switch is pushed
  2. Hook the Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) in the program and instruct it to take a specific action, such as outputting the data to a serial/parallel port or saving check point status to a form of non-volatile memory at the push of the Dump Switch's button

Who should use it?

The Dump Switch  is essential hardware for ALL developers, including:

  • System Administrators
  • Information Technologists
  • Software Developers
  • Device Driver Writers
  • Hardware Developers
  • Quality Assurance
  • Beta Testers

Connect Tech's Dump Switch cards are available in PCI and PCI Express bus formats.  They are an extremely inexpensive way to provide insurance for development time. If you're interested in solution to system hang debugging that costs less than lunch with your boss, contact us.

Contact

Euroline AS
Box 752 Stromso
N-3003 DRAMMEN Norway
Offices in Denmark and Norway:
  • +47 32 21 01 00 (Norway)
  • +45 43 46 63 70 (Denmark)