Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080256339 | Techniques for Tracing Processes in a Multi-Threaded Processor - A technique for tracing processes executing in a multi-threaded processor includes forming a trace message that includes a virtual core identification (VCID) that identifies an associated thread. The trace message, including the VCID, is then transmitted to a debug tool. | 10-16-2008 |
20090063805 | DATA ACQUISITION MESSAGING USING SPECIAL PURPOSE REGISTERS - A method provides a data acquisition message of a data processing system to an external port thereof. Configuration information is written to a configuration register. It is determined if the configuration information identifies a data acquisition operation. If the data acquisition operation has been identified, data corresponding to the configuration information is written to a data register. The data in the data register and the configuration information in the configuration register are formatted into the data acquisition message. The data acquisition message is sent to the external port of the data processing system. | 03-05-2009 |
20090103379 | INTEGRATED CIRCUIT MEMORY HAVING DYNAMICALLY ADJUSTABLE READ MARGIN AND METHOD THEREFOR - A method for dynamically controlling sense amplifier differential margin of a memory during operation, in an integrated circuit, comprising a plurality of addressable units, is provided. The method includes setting the sense amplifier differential margin corresponding to the plurality of addressable units to a first value. The method further includes if a read data error occurs when data is read from a set of the plurality of addressable units, then setting the sense amplifier differential margin corresponding to the plurality of addressable units to a second value, wherein the second value is greater than the first value. | 04-23-2009 |
20090249302 | Method and Apparatus to Trace and Correlate Data Trace and Instruction Trace for Out-of-Order Processors - In a data processing system, a marked bit is used to identify a data access instruction throughout the pipeline to indicate that the instruction meets user-specified criteria (e.g., a meets a data address range of interest). Based on the marked bit, an in-order program correlation message is generated which indicates when the data access instruction occurs relative to the instruction stream. The marked bit is also used to generate an in-order data trace message. As a result, the trace streams including only data access instructions meeting user-specified criteria may be post-processed and correlated precisely. | 10-01-2009 |
20100263043 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR SECURE TEST PORT AUTHENTICATION - A device includes a first test port coupled to a first test device, a second test port coupled to a second test device, a resource, and a security controller coupled to the first and second test ports. The security controller is operable to authenticate the first test device prior to authenticating the second test device, and, in response to authenticating the first test device, permit the first and second test devices to access the first resource. | 10-14-2010 |
20100268990 | TRACING SUPPORT FOR INTERCONNECT FABRIC - Complex on-chip interconnect fabrics, particularly those that include point-to-point interconnects and coherent routing networks, can present significant challenges for conventional trace techniques that may be applied in an effort to efficiently provide an external debugger with visibility into on-chip interconnect transactions. Embodiments described herein generate and supply separate in-circuit-trace messages including address messages and data messages, which are sent out (i.e., off-chip) to external debug tools generally without delay and coincident with the distinct, but related, trace events within address and data paths of the interconnect fabric. These separate message instances embed appropriate tag and mark values to allow the message instances to be post-processed and correlated by the external debug tools so as to reconstruct the transaction information for operations performed in the on-chip interconnect. | 10-21-2010 |
20100281308 | TRACE MESSAGING DEVICE AND METHODS THEREOF - A method of generating timestamped trace messages includes generating a trace message in response to an event at an instruction pipeline of a data processing device. If timestamping is enabled, timestamps are only included in the trace message only if a programmable condition is detected. For example, a timestamp can be included in the trace message if the amount of space used to store messages at a trace message buffer exceeds a watermark value. The condition that results in a timestamped trace message is programmable, and can be selected via a debug interface. Because timestamps are only included in trace messages when the programmable condition is satisfied, some trace messages will not include a timestamp, thereby reducing the amount of buffer space needed to store the trace messages. | 11-04-2010 |
20100293416 | DYNAMIC DEBUGGING OF PLATFORM TRANSACTIONS VIA CONTEXT AWARE TRANSACTIONAL DEBUG MARKING - A system includes a platform domain implementing address-indexed operations and an application domain implementing application context-oriented operations. The platform domain includes a platform interconnect to process address-indexed platform transactions and a trace monitor to generate a debug trace stream from platform transactions based on their platform context information. The application domain includes a processing component and a queue manager to queue descriptors for data frames to be processed by the application domain, each descriptor having application context information including application-specific debug information for the corresponding data frame. The processing component processes a selected data frame by accessing, from the queue manager, a descriptor associated with the selected data frame, translating an application-specific debug information of the descriptor to a corresponding platform attribute value, and providing a platform transaction to the platform interconnect for processing in the platform domain, the platform transaction having the platform attribute value in an attribute field. | 11-18-2010 |
20100318752 | Event Triggered Memory Mapped Access - In one or more embodiments, a data processing system can include at least one core capable of executing instructions of an instruction set architecture and a triggered memory map access (tMMA) system coupled to the at least one core. The tMMA system can receive one or more events and, in response, perform one or more actions. For example, the actions can include transactions which can include a write to a an address of the memory map, a read from an address of the memory map, a read followed by write to two respective addresses of the memory map, and/or a fetch transaction. A result of a transaction (e.g., data read, data written, error, etc.) can be used in generating a trace message. For example, the tMMA system can generate a trace message that includes the result of the transaction and send the trace message to a trace message bus. | 12-16-2010 |
20100318972 | Trace Correlation for Profiling Subroutines - In one or more embodiments, a data processing system can include at least one core capable of executing instructions of an instruction set architecture and a trace unit coupled to the at least one core. A call to a subroutine can be detected, and in response, a program trace correlation (PTC) message can be generated and sent to a trace port. Data associated with an execution of the subroutine and/or performance of the data processing system can be sampled and sent to the trace port. A return from the subroutine can be detected, and in response, a trace message can be generated and sent to the trace port. The PTC message and the trace message can be correlated, and the correlation of the PTC message and the trace message can be used to determine a boundary for the subroutine and/or the sampled data associated with the execution of the subroutine. | 12-16-2010 |
20120331354 | TRACE MESSAGING DEVICE AND METHODS THEREOF - A method of generating timestamped trace messages includes generating a trace message in response to an event at an instruction pipeline of a data processing device. If timestamping is enabled, timestamps are only included in the trace message only if a programmable condition is detected. For example, a timestamp can be included in the trace message if the amount of space used to store messages at a trace message buffer exceeds a watermark value. The condition that results in a timestamped trace message is programmable, and can be selected via a debug interface. Because timestamps are only included in trace messages when the programmable condition is satisfied, some trace messages will not include a timestamp, thereby reducing the amount of buffer space needed to store the trace messages. | 12-27-2012 |
20140351825 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DIRECT MEMORY ACCESS COHERENCY AMONG MULTIPLE PROCESSING CORES - A multi-core system configured to execute a plurality of tasks and having a semaphore engine and a direct memory access (DMA) engine capable of selecting, by a task scheduler of a first core, a first task for execution by the first core. In response to a semaphore lock request, the task scheduler of the first core switches the first task to an inactive state and selects a next task for execution by the first core. After the semaphore engine acquires the semaphore lock of the first semaphore, a data transfer request is provided to the DMA engine. In response to the data transfer request, the DMA engine transfers data associated with the locked first semaphore to the entry of the workspace of the first core. | 11-27-2014 |
20140359636 | MULTI-CORE SYSTEM PERFORMING PACKET PROCESSING WITH CONTEXT SWITCHING - A multi-core processing system includes a first processing core, a second processing core, a task manager coupled to the first and second processing cores. The task manager is operable to receive context information of a task from the first processing core and provide the context information to the second processing core. The second processing core continues executing the task using the context information. | 12-04-2014 |