Porting & Updating Scientific Measurement Software
Problem Statement:
An azad client was updating a hardware instrument and the 18 year old measurement software that ran on the original hardware. The code was initially written as macros and needed to be ported to a flexible computer language and to support the new line of instrument hardware. The new version of measurement software had to be consistent with the original both in results and accuracy.
azad Approach & Solution:
The azad consultant needed to be well versed in scientific computing, system architectures and work in a multiple operating system environment to fulfill the clients’ needs. Following are some of the criteria and approaches used to implement the client’s solution:
- Work fluently in both Linux and Windows environment.
- Get up to speed quickly with the clients version control system and bug tacking system.
- Work as an integral part of a large software and hardware engineering team.
- Reverse engineer existing measurement code and implement in C as a portable module that can be used in multiple instruments.
- Provide documentation for the new code both at an architecture level and for the algorithms used.
- Wrote test plan for new algorithms and implemented test cases.
- Validated new measurement code using simple and complex test cases against the old instrument.
Tangible Outcome:
The client has been able to use the new code in four product lines. Each product line has includes multiple models. Future instruments will be able to use the new code because of the more generic implementation.
