Reactis V2009.2 Now Available

Cary, NC (July 23, 2009) -- Reactive Systems, Inc. (RSI) announced the V2009.2 release of its Reactis® testing and validation package today. The new version includes a host of new features and enhancements since the previous major release in January 2009.

V2009.2 includes a new feature called Multi-Block MC/DC. The feature enables the aggregation of multiple Simulink Logical Operator blocks into a single unit for the purposes of Decision, Condition, and MC/DC coverage tracking. For example, consider the following model fragment:

Under the traditional definition of MC/DC coverage in Simulink, this fragment would include three separate decisions:

• A or B
• C or D
• op1 and op2

each with its own conditions and MC/DC targets. When Multi-Block MC/DC is enabled, these three operators are combined into a single decision:

• A or B and C or D

Users have the option to disable Multi-Block MC/DC and use the traditional definition of MC/DC (one decision per Logical Operator block).

Multi-Block MC/DC helps engineers construct even more comprehensive tests than those constructed to meet the traditional Single-Block MC/DC criterion since the new definition tracks the inter-dependencies among the condition inputs to different blocks that constitute a aggregate group.

V2009.2 also includes several new capabilities to ease the navigation of large models. Clicking on a signal line in Reactis now highlights the signal in yellow. This feature makes it easy to trace a signal back to the point where it was generated and forwards to the point where it is consumed (used by a block to compute a new value). The highlighting flows through (backwards and forwards) the following blocks that do not modify a signal value: Inport, Outport, Subsystem, From, Goto, DataStoreWrite, DataStoreRead. Highlighting can be removed by clicking in open space.

After clicking the "up" arrow (or pressing F2) to display the parent of the currently displayed subsystem, Reactis now highlights the subsystem that was previously visible. This can be helpful when navigating large models.

A new tab in the RSI File Editor lists all Validator objectives (assertions, user-defined targets, and virtual sources) that have been added to a model. For each objective, the listing provides the objective's status (disabled, enabled, covered, not covered, violated, ok), name, and location in the model.

Newly supported Simulink features include the following:

• MATLAB R2009a models (initial support).
• Accessing Data Store Memory blocks from within Stateflow charts.
• The use of bus types in Stateflow charts.
• Parameterized links in library references.
• Setting the data type for a machine-global Stateflow variable to "inherited".
• The & operator can now be applied to array and structure elements as a parameter to an external C function called from Stateflow. For example: foo(&(a[3])) and foo(&b.x) are now supported if foo is an external C function called from Stateflow.

V2009.2 also includes a number of improvements to the Reactis for C Plugin. These include the following:

• Improved performance and memory consumption when simulating or generating tests for C code.
• Improved coverage of the C code portions of models by Tester.
• When paused in Simulator, hovering:
  • over an active function displays the current call stack,
  • over a variable will display the location in the source code at which the variable was last modified,
  • over a pointer displays the contents of the location pointed to.
• A new tab in the RSI File Editor lists all locations where C code might be incorporated into a model.
• When hovering over a macro in C, the expanded macro text is displayed.

Other enhancements include the following:

• Improved performance when running Simulator or Tester on large models.
• An "Auto-wire" button in the Validator objective dialog simplifies the process of wiring objectives into a model (especially in the case of virtual sources that may control a number of inputs). Clicking the button will automatically select the correct connections for a port of an objective if the port's name matches the name of an item in the model.
• The contents of the log window in the "runtests" utility can now be saved to a file.

More details regarding the V2009.2 enhancements may be found in the revision history in the Reactis User's Guide.

About Reactis. RSI's Reactis tool provides automated test-generation and model-validation capabilities for Simulink/Stateflow models of control software. The tool can be used to test for conformance between a model and implementation code, and it can also be employed to validate model behavior.

About Reactive Systems. Reactive Systems, founded in 1999, is a privately held company based in Cary, North Carolina. For more information about RSI visit www.reactive-systems.com or call +1-919-324-3507.