METHOD FOR DEVELOPING SOFTWARE CODE AND ESTIMATING PROCESSOR EXECUTION TIME

A method (1) of developing software code for executing on a target digital processor uses a memory in which it maintains data structures having elements, each of the elements storing data which is represented by a label, and at least some links between the elements are created by the target processor as data is being processed. The method comprises the step (3) of writing the software code with data structure processing operations which comply with random structure preservation rules (2). A static analysis timing tool automatically parses (4) the code developed in step (2) to identify all operations. It determines (7) from an operation and all possible input states for that operation an average time value for execution of the operation by a target data processor, and stores (9) said average time value. It determines (8) from the operation and all possible input states all possible output states for that operation. The timing tool repeats steps (7 and 8) for each next operation, using the all possible output states determined in step (8) as all possible input states. It generates (11) an output total average time which is a sum of all average times stored in step (9).