RVS tools are designed to handle very large code bases. Because of the efficient algorithms used by RVS tools, there is no fundamental limitation to the number of lines of code that RVS can process, and our RVS tools have been used on projects with millions of lines of code.

We offer both “Node-locked” and “Floating” licenses, and a license server to support use of our tools in your specific development environment. 

For more information on our licensing models, see our RVS licensing FAQs.

All RVS licenses include access to our dedicated in-house support team, who will work with you to provide a rapid fix to your issue. This is a critical part of our vision. During 2021, we resolved 63% of our support requests within 7 working days and 93% within 30 working days. We also inform our customers of known issues via our website and email.

We provide an extensive set of RVS documentation with each of our products, and offer training courses guiding you through the most effective use of RVS tools. All our users can benefit from privileged access to our website, which includes downloads for new product releases. 

RapiTask^Zero is a scheduling visualization tool that requires no project source code or modification of the development environment being used. To extract task-level scheduling information from a program, RapiTask^Zero analyzes branch trace information collected from a compatible target or data collection mechanism.

As part of the RVS toolsuite, it forms part of a software verification solution that also includes tools for structural coverage analysis, worst-case execution time analysis and functional testing.

RapiTask^Zero uses two types of inputs from which to produce task-level scheduling results. The first is the executable file and a disassembly of it, and the second is a branch trace collected while the program under analysis is executed. From these inputs, RapiTask^Zero can understand both the program structure and the events that occurred during the program execution, allowing it to perform task-level scheduling analysis and produce results.

RapiTask^Zero is OS-agnostic so you can keep the same visualization and metrics if you change OS, and you can use RapiTask^Zero results as a point of reference to compare operating systems.

Additionally, you can capture and display custom events not related to the operating system (for example ARINC 429 messages) and display them in the trace.

RapiTask^Zero is OS-agnostic; as with all Rapita tools the integration with the operating environment needs to be customized. If we can get information about items of interest from the OS we can add ‘user events’ to a RapiTask^Zero trace.

As with all RVS tools, RapiTask^Zero supports data collection on multicore architectures. To analyze the task-level scheduling behavior of multicore architectures, RapiTask^Zero simply needs to know which branches corresponded to which core during program execution. This information can be inferred by providing a combined trace that includes information on the core on which each branch was taken.

RapiTask^Zero displays results in two applications, the RVS Project Manager that is shared with all RVS tools, and an application specifically designed to display task scheduling information. You can synchronize the two applications to ensure that you can easily identify specific timing events in your system.

RapiTask^Zero 's Invocation Timeline Chart helps you to understand the high-level scheduling behavior of your system at a glance.

RapiTime and RapiTime^Zero abstract away from the OS tasking model and only report the execution time of a task as if it were the only thing running on the CPU. If you are interested in the response time of your code, or the interaction between tasks and your OS, you'll need RapiTask or RapiTask^Zero.

As RapiTask^Zero analyzes object code directly to produce results, it supports any language that targets machine code.

You can request a trial version of RVS, which includes RapiTask^Zero. You can also arrange a demonstration, where a member of our team will work with you to show the benefits that RapiTask^Zero can offer you.

Software analysis by zero-footprint RVS tools has the following requirements:

• The platform (target and any external devices e.g. debuggers) must be capable of producing a branch trace without gaps to ensure that the full program trace can be reconstructed.
• The OS needs to make context switches observable. For some systems, supporting this may require modifications to be made to the OS.
• A Platform Support Package (PSP) is needed for RVS to interface with the platform, including the target hardware and trace capture mechanisms, in order to convert the branch trace into a format that the RVS tool understands and disassemble the executable and parse the resulting object code. PSPs are developed to be compatible with four components of the platform: Compilers, Instruction sets, Branch traces and Real-time operating systems.

For more information on the requirements for software analysis by zero-footprint RVS tools and a list of currently supported platforms, see our Platform support page.

For more detailed information on the requirements, see our Technical note.

If your source code is available, yes. By importing your source code and debug symbols into your RVS project, you can view your results in the context of both your object and source code, and trace between them.

The Rapita Verification Suite (RVS) has been used in the critical embedded industry for over 15 years and supported a number of avionics projects globally. Qualification kits for qualified RVS products have supported more than 20 DO-178B and C certification projects up to and including DAL A.

Floating RVS licenses follow an “Enterprise” model. You can use them across geographical boundaries*, in different projects, with different users, and share them with suppliers working on the same project.

^*Some floating licenses may be restricted to use within a specific geographical region. Where this is the case, this is agreed before licenses are issued.

Platform Support Packages are required to support software analysis by zero-footprint RVS tools. They interface between the tools and the platform in order to do the following:

• Convert the specific format of native branch traces generated by the platform into a format that the RVS tool understands and can use for subsequent analysis.
• Disassemble the object code to understand the structure and control flow of the code so this can be used for subsequent analysis.

Each PSP is designed to support various components of a platform. These include:

• The compiler(s) used to generate executables
• The instruction set of object code to be analyzed
• The native branch trace format generated from the platform – this depends on the mechanism used to generate branch traces, which may be the target hardware (or simulator) or a third-party device e.g. debugger.
• The real-time operating system.

Different PSPs are needed to support analysis by zero-footprint RVS tools when any of the above items are different between two platforms. For more information on how PSPs support analysis by zero-footprint RVS tools, see our Requirements for zero-footprint RVS analysis Technical note.

To see whether we have already developed PSPs compatible with the components on your platform, see our zero-footprint Platform support.

If we have not yet developed PSPs compatible with one or more components of your platform, we may be able to develop them. For more information, contact us at info@rapitasystems.com.

Check PSP compatibility

Yes, you can create and manage groups of users for your floating RVS licenses. You can restrict each group to only serve licenses to specific hostnames or IP addresses. This allows you to reserve licenses for specific groups or specific purposes such as supporting the use of RVS on a continuous integration server.

Any licenses that you don’t reserve will remain available as floating licenses that can be shared among different users and geographic locations.

RVS supports the analysis of shared code compiled by build systems with multiple executables by letting you specify the source files that will be compiled in each executable. 

If you have functions that are declared in multiple components with the same name but have different definitions, RVS can treat each such function uniquely, for example to provide separate coverage in RapiCover and separate execution time results in RapiTime.

RVS analyzes the structure of your code and presents information on your code’s structure, helping you understand your code and its dependencies in a variety of forms such as the following:

• RVS analyzes the McCabe complexity of your code and presents the complexity of each code element, letting you easily identify code with high complexity. 
• RVS Treemaps present the hierarchy of your code’s components and source files graphically.
• RVS lets you view and explore the call dependencies in your code.