HiTOP's Remote Control Interface (RCI) enables a Remote Program to control the debug system (normally an in-circuit emulator operated by HiTOP). In consequence, RCI allows the debug system to be integrated in proprietary test environments.

The Remote Program sends HiSCRIPT commands to HiTOP and receives the corresponding answers. This allows the Remote Program e.g. to

• Read / write memory
• Read / write registers
• Set / delete breakpoints
• Start / halt the emulation
• Read the trace and control it
• Set up the emulator
• ...

Furthermore, the Remote Program does not only control the debug system, but also gets asynchronous information about it, the so-called notifications. A notification is issued by the debug system

• if the user performs an interactive operation using HiTOP, e.g. if the user sets a breakpoint or
• if an event in the debug system takes place, e.g. when a breakpoint is reached.

The Remote Program may be

• a debugger
• a case tool
• a test tool like Tessy
• an advanced editor like DAC
• ...
• any program that wants to operate the debug system remotely.

Currently, several commercially available programs and some proprietary applications make use of HiTOP's Remote Control Interface.

Besides C / C++, the remote program can be written in Visual Basic®.

Profiting from the TCP/IP connection, the Remote Program and HiTOP may reside on different hosts.