Obtaining and exporting on-chip data processor trace and timing information
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsGary L. Swoboda, Robert A. McGowan
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Abstract
An emulation controller (12) located externally of an integrated circuit (14) can be provided with timing information indicative of operation of an internal clock of the integrated circuit that drives internal data processing activity of the integrated circuit. In response to each cycle of the internal clock, a corresponding digital bit is produced to represent the internal clock cycle, and the digital bits are output to the emulation controller at an output clock rate that differs from the clock rate of the internal clock.
Claims35
A method of providing to an emulation controller located externally of an integrated circuit timing information indicative of an internal clock of the integrated circuit that drives internal data processing activity of the integrated circuit, comprising:
- monitoring cycles of the internal clock;
- and
- in response to each cycle of the internal clock, producing a corresponding digital bit that represents the cycle.
A method of exporting from a data processor emulation information including emulation control information and emulation data, comprising:
- arranging the emulation information into information blocks;
- outputting a sequence of the information blocks from the data processor via a plurality of terminals of the data processor;
- and
- said arranging step including providing some of the information blocks with relative proportions of emulation control information and emulation data that differ from the relative proportions of emulation control information and emulation data in other blocks of the sequence.
A method of providing emulation information indicative of internal operations of a data processor for use by an apparatus external to the data processor, comprising:
- providing a stream of emulation trace information indicative of data processing operations performed by the data processor;
- providing a stream of timing information indicative of operation of a clock used by the data processor to perform data processing operations;
- and
- inserting in the trace stream and in the timing stream information indicative of a temporal relationship between the trace information and the timing information.
A method of providing data processor emulation information, comprising:
- providing a program counter trace stream of program counter values used by a data processor;
- inserting a synchronization marker into the program counter stream;
- providing trace information indicative of a data processing operation performed by the data processor, including identifying a corresponding program counter value from which the data processing operation was generated, said identifying step including expressing said corresponding program counter value as an offset which indicates a number of program counter values in the program counter trace stream by which said corresponding program counter value is offset from said synchronization marker in said program counter trace stream.
A method of exporting emulation information from a data processor, comprising:
- collecting internal emulation information within a data processor;
- arranging the collected emulation information into a plurality of first information blocks;
- receiving the plurality of first information blocks and arranging the emulation information contained therein into a plurality of second information blocks which differ in size from the first information blocks;
- and
- outputting a sequence of the second information blocks from the data processor via a plurality of terminals of the data processor.
A method of exporting from a data processor a plurality of values of an emulation parameter, the emulation parameter indicative of data processing operations performed by the data processor, comprising:
- outputting a sequence of parameter values from data processing terminals of the data processor;
- inserting into the sequence of parameter values information which indicates that a first portion of a first said parameter value is identical to a corresponding portion of a second said parameter value which precedes the first parameter value in the sequence;
- and
- said outputting step including outputting only a remainder portion of said first parameter value other than said first portion thereof.
A method of exporting from a data processor an emulation parameter value indicative of a data processing operation performed by the data processor, comprising:
- providing the parameter value as a plurality of digital bits;
- determining that the bits of a first group within the plurality of bits all have the same bit value;
- determining that a predetermined bit within a second group of the plurality of bits has a bit value equal to the bit value of the bits of the first group;
- and
- after said determining steps, outputting from the data processor via terminals thereof only the second group of bits without outputting the first group of bits.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.