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US 10,372,661 B1Granted
Firmware debug trace capture using serial peripheral interface
AssigneeAmerican Megatrends International, LLC
InventorMatthew Hoffmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Debug trace statements from a firmware are captured during a boot cycle of a computer executing the firmware. The debug trace statements are written to a motherboard's Serial Peripheral Interface (“SPI”) device. A microcontroller's SPI device receives the debug trace statements from the motherboard's SPI device, transforms the data format of the debug trace statements, and transmits the transformed debug trace statements over a serial communications port of the microcontroller.
Claims20
A computer system comprising:
- a motherboard that does not include an operative serial communications port, the motherboard comprising:
- a first processor,
- a first Serial Peripheral Interface (“SPI”) device, and
- a first firmware storing first instructions that when executed by the first processor cause the first processor to:
- capture debug trace statements from code within the first firmware during a boot cycle of the computer system,
- encode the debug trace statements into a first data format to generate encoded debug trace statements for transmission by the first SPI device, and
- write the encoded debug trace statements in the first data format to the first SPI device;
- and
- a microcontroller comprising:
- a second processor,
- a second SPI device,
- at least one serial communications port, and
- a second firmware storing second instructions that when executed by the second processor cause the second processor to:
- capture the encoded debug trace statements in the first data format from the first SPI device,
- convert the encoded debug trace statements from the first data format into a second data format to generate converted debug trace statements for transmission by the at least one serial communications port, and
- transmit the converted debug trace statements in the second data format over the at least one serial communications port.
13 more elements
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- causing at least one processor to execute a firmware installed on a motherboard of a computer to perform a boot cycle of the computer, wherein the motherboard of the computer does not include an operative serial communications port;
- capturing, during the boot cycle, debug trace statements from the firmware;
- encoding the debug trace statements into a first data format to generate encoded debug trace statements;
- loading the encoded debug trace statements to a shift register of a Serial Peripheral Interface (“SPI”) device installed on the motherboard;
- and
- transmitting the encoded debug trace statements via the SPI device.
3 more elements
A computer-implemented method comprising:
- capturing, from a first Serial Peripheral Interface (“SPI”) device of a computer, debug trace statements that are generated during a boot cycle of the computer, wherein the capturing the debug trace statements occurs via a master output slave input (“MOSI”) pin of a second Serial Peripheral Interface (“SPI”) device,
- transforming the debug trace statements from a first data format into a second data format that is suitable for transmission over a serial communications port, wherein the first data format is different than the second data format;
- and
- transmitting the debug trace statements via the serial communications port in the second data format.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.