C/C++ Code Coverage Tool for Safety Critical Software

Cantata is a safety certified unit and integration testing, and a code coverage analysis tool. Enabling developers to verify code coverage integrated with Cantata tests, or with any external test driver on host native embedded target platforms.

Cantata code coverage provides an objective measurement of test execution completeness, to supplement requirements based and robustness tests

Key code analysis benefits:

Pre-set standards code coverage requirements
Comprehensive coverage diagnostics
Understand coverage across builds and test runs
Filter for gaps and bottlenecks
Generate reports and certification evidence

Request a full feature license – free of charge!

Very simple installation
Full technical support
Full featured license for a limited period

60 – 90 minute web meeting
Tool overview presentation
Customised demonstration
Interactive Q&A with experts

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Which safety standards require what level of code coverage?

International software safety standards require evidence of low level (unit and integration) testing to obtain certification for the device software.

Cantata is a unit test tool for embedded C/C++ software, certified by SGS-TÜV SAAR as suitable for use at the highest Safety Integrity Levels of all these standards:

ISO 26262

Road vehicles – Functional safety
IEC 60880

Nuclear Power
IEC 62304

Medical device software – software life cycle processes
EN 50657

Railway applications – Rolling Stock Applications – Software on Board Rolling

EN 50128

Railway applications – Communication, signaling and processing systems
IEC 61508

Functional Safety of Electrical/ Electronic/ Programmable Electronic Safety-related Systems
DO-178 B/C

Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification

Cantata provides all capabilities required for embedded software testing standards compliance, including: unit testing, integration testing, code coverage, execution on host or target hardware environments, and automated regression testing for integration with DevOps and CI/CD workflows.

COVERAGE BY STANDARD

Below are listed the lowest safety integrity level by standard for which each code coverage metric is required:

“Using coverage helped us to really think about whether certain functions and blocks were needed. We confirmed great confidence in our software as everything had been tested to 100% decision coverage"

Rolf Keller, Software Engineer,

“Cantata automatically generates test reports that prove what has been tested and how extensive the test coverage was for each test case”

Johnny Johansson, Global Validation & Verification Tools Manager, SAAB

WHICH LEADING COMPANIES USE CANTATA?

Hitachi Vantara Case Study

SAAB Case Study

Thales Case Study

Creo Medical Case Study

G4S Case Study

Marconi Case Study

Innoviz Case Study

Ultra Electronics Case Study

FastFocus Case Study

HOW ABOUT YOU?

Start a free trial of CANTATA to explore how easy unit testing can be within your software testing process!

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What does Cantata Code Coverage help me do?

MEASURE COVERAGE

Code coverage is measured using the following metrics, with standard specific Rule Sets for integrated checking of required code coverage levels:

Function Entry Points
Function Call-Returns
Basic Blocks
Statements
Decisions (branches)
Loops
Relational Operators
Conditions
MC/DC (Unique-cause and Masking variants)

DIAGNOSE COVERAGE RESULTS

Cantata diagnostics presents coverage from complete project code-trees, drilling down to individual code constructs within each line of code helping you to pin-point gaps and direct test effort efficiently.

Automatic test case coverage optimisation aids test case vector selection from large data sets, and reduces regression testing overhead.

UNDERSTAND BUILD VARIANT COVERAGE

Build Variant Coverage understands source code executed over more than one build variant. Cantata uses pre-compiled defines to separately identify the different build variants. Cantata Coverage Viewer displays aggregated data for multiple build variants, of the same source code.

FILTER COVERAGE RESULTS

Cantata provides unparalleled filtering of code coverage data by selection of:

Coverage Metrics
Projects
Test Cases
Inheritance Contexts
User-defined Contexts
Build Variants
Relational Operators
Coverage Files

Cantata can also trace code coverage throughout the execution of individual test cases.

GENERATE REPORTS

In addition to the powerful diagnostics of code coverage results within the Eclipse® GUI, Cantata generates flexible user configurable reports in XML, HTML and safety standards certification ready ASCII and HTML text reports.

Build Variant Coverage reports aggregate coverage data across all defines, which is suitable as certification evidence for all build variants of the source code.

Reports and certification evidence embed the integrated checks on the achievement of the required coverage metric targets.

Cantata can also trace code coverage throughout the execution of individual test cases.

Want to achieve higher levels of code coverage?

Cantata is an efficient software testing tool that can help measure the effectiveness of the testing efforts for C and C++ code. Sign up to our free trial and test the code quality of your software for Free!

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How does Cantata code coverage work?

Cantata Coverage uses instrumentation (via the GUI or CLI) on a copy of the source code, and coverage data is recorded for both graphical diagnosis and certification ready evidence.

Coverage analysis can be used integrated with Cantata tests or used to measure execution from other tests, and data from multiple tests can be easily combined.

Analysis is made simpler by customisable coverage Rule Sets, which automate all the code instrumentation, data reporting and required coverage checking, for all the main software safety standards.

Gain insights from our whitepapers

C AND C++ SOFTWARE TESTING – AM I COVERED?

This paper looks at the various applications of the term ‘coverage’ in the software development industry for software written in C and C++.

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WHICH CODE COVERAGE METRICS TO USE

This paper describes and discusses a selection of structural coverage metrics which are based on control flow analysis, looking at the practicality of their use for real software developments.

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AN INTRODUCTION TO SAFETY CRITICAL SYSTEMS

This paper is aimed to serve as a tutorial for developers who are new to the development of software for safety critical systems, discussing the issues involved, introducing some of the techniques available to developers, and providing an overview of how Cantata can be used within the process.

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15 WAYS TO MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF UNIT TESTS IN SAFETY CRITICAL PROJECTS

This paper discusses approaches you can take with your unit testing to maximize their contribution to the development process.

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C/C++ Code Coverage Tool for Safety Critical Software