Method and apparatus for halting a processor and providing state visibility on a pipeline phase basis

• US 6,081,885 A
• Filed: 11/19/1997
• Issued: 06/27/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Seshan, Natarajan, Deao, Douglas E.
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Ai T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Monestime, Mackly
• Application Number:
  US08/974,014
• Time in Patent Office: 951 Days
• Field of Search: 395/568, 395/183.1, 395/561, 395/800.23, 395/183.14, 712/227, 712/220, 712/23, 712/12, 712/13, 712/16
• US Class Current: 712/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3636 by tracing the execution of the program
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3648 using additional hardware
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30072 to perform conditional operations, e.g. using predicates or guards
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/30079 Pipeline control instructions, e.g. multicycle NOP
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3552 using wraparound, e.g. modulo or circular addressing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3824 Operand accessing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3853 of compound instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/3875 Pipelining a single stage, e.g. superpipelining

Abstract

A data processing system on an integrated circuit 42 with microprocessor 1 and peripheral devices 60-61 is provided with an emulation unit 50 which allows debugging and emulation of integrated circuit 42 when connected to an external test system 51. Microprocessor 1 has in instruction execution pipeline that has several execution phases which involve fetch/decode units 10a-c and functional execution units 12, 14, 16 and 18. The pipeline of microprocessor 1 is unprotected so that memory access latency to data memory 22 and register file 20 can be utilized by system program code which is stored in instruction memory 23. Emulation unit 50 provides means for emulating the unprotected pipeline of microprocessor 1 and for rapidly uploading and downloading memories 22-23. Microprocessor 1 is operable to halt in response to an emulation event with partially completed instructions still in the execution pipeline. Thus, emulation unit 50 can provide visibility to the state of the microprocessor on a single pipeline phase basis. Emulation unit 50 operates in a manner to prevent extraneous operations from occurring that could otherwise affect memories 22-23 or peripheral devices 60-61 during emulation.

Claims

1. A method for debugging a processor within a data processing system, the processor having an instruction execution pipeline, comprising the steps of:

executing system code in the processor instruction execution pipeline in a normal operational manner to initiate a plurality of overlapping operations in a plurality of stages of the instruction pipeline;

halting the normal operation of the processor in a manner that at least one of the overlapping operations is incomplete and then saving a first state representative of the instruction execution pipeline; and

single stepping the instruction execution pipeline one pipeline phase in a manner that initiates a second plurality of overlapping operations in the plurality of stages of the instruction execution pipeline, such that at least a second one of the overlapping operations is incomplete, and then saving a second state representative of the instruction pipeline.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of halting the normal operation further comprises waiting a non-specific amount of time while a memory access is completed.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the step of halting the normal operation further comprises waiting a non-specific amount of time while a plurality of memory accesses are completed.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of overlapping operations correspond to a plurality of instructions being executed in the processor instruction execution pipeline.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein the memory access is in response to one of the plurality of overlapping operations in the instruction pipeline.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of saving a first state comprises saving the contents of a plurality of registers associated with the instruction execution pipeline.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of transferring the first state to a debug test host.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of inhibiting fetching of a new instruction after the step of halting normal operations and before the step of advancing the instruction pipeline one pipeline phase.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the step of annulling a first portion of the plurality of overlapping operations that have not yet entered a selected stage in the instruction execution pipeline.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising repeating a step of advancing the instruction execution pipeline one pipeline phase and saving another state representative of the instruction pipeline until a remaining portion of the plurality of overlapping operations is completed.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of halting is in response to a step of detecting an address breakpoint.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of halting is in response to a step of detecting a software breakpoint instruction.

4. A data processing system comprising a microprocessor having an instruction execution pipeline, the microprocessor further comprising:

circuitry for executing system code in the processor instruction execution pipeline in a normal operational manner to initiate a plurality of overlapping operations in a plurality of stages of the instruction pipeline;

circuitry for halting the normal operation of the processor in a manner that at least one of the overlapping operations is incomplete;

circuitry for saving a first state representative of the instruction execution pipeline; and

circuitry for single stepping the instruction execution pipeline one pipeline phase in a manner that initiates a second plurality of overlapping operations in the plurality of stages of the instruction execution pipeline, such that at least a second one of the overlapping operations is incomplete and then saving a second state representative of the instruction pipeline.

5. The data processing system of claim 4, further comprising:

memory for holding program instructions connected to the microprocessor; and

a disk drive connected to the microprocessor.

13. The data processing system of claim 5, wherein the plurality of overlapping operations correspond to a plurality of instructions being executed in the processor instruction execution pipeline.