Instrument, hardware and software simulation in a test system

This paper reviews the requirements and methods associated with executing a test program application in simulation mode. The simulation requires running the application with a subset of instrumentation or without any instrumentation and with or without the Unit Under Test (UUT). In simulation mode some of the instruments or the UUT may not exist, which requires that the simulation environment filter and mask out errors as well as be able to return different values for various application states. Additionally, the simulation environment must also accommodate various data types including scalar, arrays, strings, structures, etc. Additionally, simulation environment should not require modification of the application code, ideally the same code will run in the simulated or non-simulated environment. The solution presented by this paper details the implementation of a simulation system that is created by enhancing the application run-time engine which is part of a commercial application development software environment (ATEasy).