SPRAD28 October   2022 AM2431 , AM2432 , AM2434 , AM2631 , AM2631-Q1 , AM2632 , AM2632-Q1 , AM2634 , AM2634-Q1 , AM263P4 , AM263P4-Q1 , AM26C31 , AM26C31-EP , AM26C31M , AM26C32 , AM26C32-EP , AM26C32C , AM26C32M , AM26LS31 , AM26LS31M , AM26LS32A , AM26LS32AC , AM26LS32AM , AM26LS33A , AM26LS33A-SP , AM26LS33AM , AM26LV31 , AM26LV31E , AM26LV31E-EP , AM26LV32 , AM26LV32E , AM26LV32E-EP , AM26S10 , AM2732 , AM2732-Q1

 

  1.   Abstract
  2.   Trademarks
  3. 1 Building for Debug
    1. 1.1 Disable Code Optimization
    2. 1.2 Using the Debug SDK Libraries
  4. 2 Code Composer Studio Stop-Mode Debugging
    1. 2.1 Configuring the Debugger
    2. 2.2 Breakpoints and Watchpoints
      1. 2.2.1 Software Breakpoints
      2. 2.2.2 Hardware Breakpoints
      3. 2.2.3 Watchpoints
    3. 2.3 Inspecting Device Registers
    4. 2.4 Inspecting Disassembly
  5. 3 Debug Logging
    1. 3.1 Logging Methods
    2. 3.2 Log Zones
    3. 3.3 Asserts
    4. 3.4 Example Usage
  6. 4 Multi-Core Debug
    1. 4.1 Grouping Cores
      1. 4.1.1 Fixed Group
      2. 4.1.2 Hiding Cores
    2. 4.2 Using Multiple Workbench Windows
    3. 4.3 Global Breakpoints
  7. 5 Debugging Arm Cortex-R5 Exceptions
    1. 5.1 Exception Priority Order
    2. 5.2 Aborts
      1. 5.2.1 Data Aborts
        1. 5.2.1.1 Alignment
        2. 5.2.1.2 Background Aborts
        3. 5.2.1.3 Permission
        4. 5.2.1.4 Synchronous/Asynchronous External
        5. 5.2.1.5 Synchronous/Asynchronous ECC
      2. 5.2.2 Synchronous/Asynchronous Aborts
        1. 5.2.2.1 Changing an Asynchronous Abort to a Synchronous Abort
        2. 5.2.2.2 Synchronous Abort
        3. 5.2.2.3 Asynchronous Abort
        4. 5.2.2.4 Debugging Asynchronous Abort
      3. 5.2.3 Prefetch Abort
        1. 5.2.3.1 Possible Reasons for Prefetch Abort
        2. 5.2.3.2 Handling Prefetch Abort Exception
      4. 5.2.4 Undefined Instruction
        1. 5.2.4.1 Possible Reasons for Undefined Instruction Exception
        2. 5.2.4.2 Handling Undefined Instruction Exception
    3. 5.3 Fetching Core Registers Inside an Abort Handler
  8. 6 Debugging Arm Cortex-M4 Exceptions
    1. 6.1 Exception Entry and Exit Sequence
      1. 6.1.1 Entry Sequence
      2. 6.1.2 Exception Exit Sequence
      3. 6.1.3 Decoding EXC_RETURN Value
    2. 6.2 Faults Handling
      1. 6.2.1 There are 15 System Exceptions by Arm Cortex M Processors
        1. 6.2.1.1 Causes of Faults
      2. 6.2.2 HardFault Exception
        1. 6.2.2.1 Causes of HardFault Exception
      3. 6.2.3 Configurable Fault Exceptions
        1. 6.2.3.1 Mem Manage Fault Exception
        2. 6.2.3.2 BusFault Exception
        3. 6.2.3.3 Usage Fault Exception
      4. 6.2.4 Control Registers
        1. 6.2.4.1 SHP - System Handler Priority Register
      5. 6.2.5 Status Registers
        1. 6.2.5.1 Undefined Instruction Handling Example
        2. 6.2.5.2 Invalid State Handling Example
      6. 6.2.6 Printing the Stack Frame
  9. 7 Debugging Memory
    1. 7.1 Viewing Device Memory
    2. 7.2 Linker Command File (linker.cmd)
      1. 7.2.1 The Memory Directive
      2. 7.2.2 The Sections Directive
    3. 7.3 Stack Overflow
      1. 7.3.1 -fstack-protector
      2. 7.3.2 -fstack-protector-strong
      3. 7.3.3 -fstack-protector-all
      4. 7.3.4 Enabling Stack Smashing Detection
      5. 7.3.5 Enabling Stack Smashing Detection
    4. 7.4 Variables and Expressions View in CCS
    5. 7.5 Understanding Your Application's Memory Allocation
    6. 7.6 FreeRTOS ROV
  10. 8 Debugging Boot
    1. 8.1 ROM Boot
    2. 8.2 SBL Boot
    3. 8.3 GEL Files
      1. 8.3.1 Debugging Init Code
        1. 8.3.1.1 Disable Auto-Run to Main
  11. 9 Debugging Real-Time Control Loops
    1. 9.1 Trace
      1. 9.1.1 Processor / Core Trace
      2. 9.1.2 How to Use CCS to Capture Trace Data on an AM243x
    2. 9.2 Code Profile / Coverage
      1. 9.2.1 CCS Count Event
    3. 9.3 Real-Time UART Monitor
      1. 9.3.1 Confirm CCS Features
      2. 9.3.2 Create Target Configuration File
      3. 9.3.3 Add Serial Command Monitor Software
      4. 9.3.4 Launch Real Time Debug
  12. 10E2E Support Forums

9.1.1 Processor / Core Trace

The Core Trace is responsible for the next following things:

  • Capture all instructions that go through the CPU and copy them to a memory buffer:
    • Trace program address execution
    • Trace data writes to a specific location or range of locations
  • Attach timestamps to each instruction
  • Send data back to Code Composer Studio for post processing analysis:
    • Code Coverage
    • Profile

Expanding on the concept of Core Trace, the idea behind it is pretty straightforward: simply capture all the assembly instructions that ever get executed by the CPU and send them to the host PC for analysis. These are stored together with timestamps. Once this data is available, CCS can correlate the assembly instructions with the source code and thus allow looking at the code execution more easily. In addition to that it can also perform a multitude of other operations. The most relevant are: code coverage analysis, which means finding out which routines were actually executed, and profiling, which means knowing how many times and for how long each instruction and routine executed. However, one important detail defines its availability: since the execution speed of modern processors can reach billions of instructions per second, it is impossible to gather all this information without special hardware and some buffering between the device and the host PC. That is the reason why core trace is not available in all devices, and for the ones who have this feature there are two implementations with different levels of complexity:

ETB - Embedded Trace Buffer:

  • Buffer size is limited (typically 2k to 8k)
  • No modifications to the hardware are needed
  • Any XDS emulator can be used
  • Can run at core frequency

Pin Trace

  • A technology that features a trace buffer outside of the device without losing the ability to capture all instructions that are executed by the processing core.
  • Buffer size is virtually unlimited (up to 2G)
  • It features circular and one-shot modes
  • Modifications to the hardware are needed
  • Frequency depends on pin bandwidth