Scriptor

The powerful on-board processor on each FireSpy analyzer makes it possible to perform user-defined tasks within the FireSpy itself and therefore ‘close’ to the 1394 bus. This not only offloads the host processor, but also provides a real-time environment, which is hard to accomplish on operating systems like Microsoft WindowsTM. The newer the FireSpy model, the more powerful this on-board processor typically is.

As the main purpose of the FireSpy is to analyze, test and simulate bus-traffic, it provides a wide range of built-in functions for Packet Creation and filling, (Timed) Packet Sending and (Timed) Packet Reception. Furthermore, it provides functions for reading and writing of Phy Registers and Control and State registers.

Over the years, the Scriptor function library has matured into a very complete feature set for common 1394/AS5643 tasks.

Integrated Development Environment

The Scriptor integrated development environment provides an easy-to-use graphical user interface for Script writing. The language itself is based on C, adjusted and simplified to implicitly force a well-readable coding style upon the user. This is achieved by using a tree view to display and edit the script source code in combination with a properties editor to help the user enter statements for the first time.

Control Panel

A Control Panel with both input and output controls offers a user-friendly interface to a running script. Numeric indicators as well as more graphical panel items, like a gauge and thermo are available to the user to display values retrieved from a running script. Push-buttons, edit-boxes, sliders and clickable image maps can be used to send numeric values to a running script.

Integrated Debugger

The Scriptor IDE contains an integrated debugger for script troubleshooting. The debugger enables the user to set breakpoints and control execution on a per-process basis. In debug mode the Scriptor shows symbol information about local and global symbols for all processes. Furthermore, it contains a call-stack to go back in the function-call chain and see what the symbol values were when a specific function call was made. The debugger is focused on simplicity. There is no need for external command line tools or complicated settings. Just enable debug mode and all run-time symbol information is shown in human-readable tables.

Data Editor

A Data Editor page is available that enables the user to define a data block in several different ways. Both a Hex editor and a Packet Format editor are available. Data can also be loaded from file. Data defined through the data editor can be used by the Script to fill packet headers or packet data sections.

Key Features

  • User-defined Scripts running on FireSpy
  • Executed close to the 1394 bus (Real-Time)
  • 1394 and AS5643 Device Simulation
  • Simple to use C-like language
  • Integrated Debugging Environment
  • Graphical Control Panel
  • Extensive Function Library
    • AS5643 Support
    • Packet Tx/Rx
    • PHY Register Access

Screenshots