On-chip (in-system) triggering of logic analyzer

Abstract

An integrated circuit (IC) device includes functional circuitry and data capture circuitry that stores a state of the functional circuitry in a buffer and outputs contents of the buffer to an external device based on a trigger. An embedded processor interacts with the functional circuitry based on a computer program, and initiates the trigger. The processor may initiate the trigger at a selectable break-point of the computer program and/or based on data generated by the functional circuitry. The processor may also output corresponding states of variables managed by the processor. The processor may initiate the trigger by asserting a predetermined value on a communication path between the processor and the functional circuitry, or over another communication path (e.g., an AXI debug hub) between the processor and the data capture circuitry. The processor may monitor/control the data capture circuitry through an API.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.