公开(公告)号：US20190179642A1

公开(公告)日：2019-06-13

申请号：US16309620

申请日：2016-09-13

Applicant: ARM LIMITED

Inventor： Michael John GIBBS ,  John Michael HORLEY

IPC: G06F9/38 ,  G06F11/34 ,  G06F9/32 ,  G06F11/36

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for generating and processing a trace stream indicative of instruction execution by processing circuitry. An apparatus has an input interface for receiving instruction execution information from processing circuitry indicative of a sequence of instructions executed by the processing circuitry, and trace generation circuitry for generating from the instruction execution information a trace stream comprising a plurality of trace elements indicative of execution by the processing circuitry of predetermined instructions within the sequence. The instruction sequence includes at least one branch-future instruction that effectively turns an instruction identified by the branch-future instruction into a branch, and in particular causes the processing circuitry to branch to a target address identified by the branch-future instruction when that identified instruction is encountered within the instruction sequence. A branch control cache is used to store branch control information derived from the branch-future instruction, and the trace generation circuitry is arranged to detect, based on that branch control information, when the identified instruction has been encountered by the processing circuitry, and upon such detection to then issue within the trace stream a trace element to indicate that a branch to the target address has occurred. This enables a very efficient form of trace stream to be used even in situations where the instruction sequence executed by the processing circuitry includes such branch-future instructions.

公开(公告)号：US20140101491A1

公开(公告)日：2014-04-10

申请号：US14104382

申请日：2013-12-12

Applicant: ARM Limited

Inventor： Paul Anthony GILKERSON ,  John Michael HORLEY ,  Michael John GIBBS

IPC: G06F11/34

CPC classification number: G06F11/3495 ,  G06F9/30072 ,  G06F9/30094 ,  G06F9/30101 ,  G06F9/30123 ,  G06F9/30145 ,  G06F11/348

Abstract: A trace unit, diagnostic apparatus and data processing apparatus are provided for tracing of conditional instructions. The data processing apparatus generates instruction observed indicators indicating execution of conditional instructions and result output indicators indicating output by the data processing apparatus of results of executing respective conditional instructions. The instruction observed indicators and result output indicators are received by a trace unit that is configured to output conditional instruction trace data items and independently output conditional result trace data items enabling separate trace analysis of conditional instructions and corresponding conditional results by a diagnostic apparatus. The instruction observed indicator is received at the trace unit in a first processing cycle of the data processing apparatus whilst result output indicator is received at in a second different processing cycle.

Abstract translation: 提供跟踪单元，诊断装置和数据处理装置用于跟踪条件指令。 数据处理装置产生指示执行条件指令的指示观察指示，以及指示数据处理装置执行各条件指令的结果的结果输出指示符。 指令观察指标和结果输出指示器被配置为输出条件指令跟踪数据项的跟踪单元接收，并独立地输出条件结果跟踪数据项，从而能够通过诊断设备对条件指令和相应的条件结果进行单独的跟踪分析。 在数据处理装置的第一处理周期中，在跟踪单元处接收指令观察指示符，而在第二不同处理周期中接收结果输出指示符。

公开(公告)号：US20200264963A1

公开(公告)日：2020-08-20

申请号：US16645584

申请日：2018-12-10

Applicant: Arm Limited

Inventor： Michael John GIBBS

IPC: G06F11/34 ,  G06F9/38 ,  G06F9/30 ,  G06F11/30

Abstract: A trace module has monitoring circuitry for monitoring processing of instructions by processing circuitry, and trace output circuitry for outputting a sequence of elements indicative of outcomes of the processing of instructions by the processing circuitry. The trace module supports output of a commit window move element indicating that a commit window, representing a portion of the trace stream comprising at least one speculative element representing at least one speculatively executed instruction, should move while the oldest remaining speculative element of the trace stream remains uncommitted. This can be useful for tracing of transactional memory functionality within program code.

公开(公告)号：US20140229771A1

公开(公告)日：2014-08-14

申请号：US14185121

申请日：2014-02-20

Applicant: ARM LIMITED

Inventor： John Michael HORLEY ,  Paul Anthony GILKERSON ,  Michael John GIBBS

IPC: G06F11/07

CPC classification number: G06F11/079 ,  G06F11/3024 ,  G06F11/3466 ,  G06F11/348 ,  G06F11/364 ,  G06F11/3664

Abstract: A data processing apparatus is provided with trace circuitry for generating a plurality of trace streams including an instruction trace stream 10 and a data trace stream 12. The instruction elements within the instruction trace stream and the data elements within the data trace stream are marked with key values KV such that a match may be made between data elements and corresponding instruction elements. When predetermined conditions are met, synchronisation markers 66 are inserted in both the instruction trace stream 10 and the data trace stream 12 in order to permit a precise correlation to be made between the instruction elements and the data elements when the data is subsequently analysed.

Abstract translation: 数据处理装置具有跟踪电路，用于产生包括指令跟踪流10和数据跟踪流12的多个跟踪流。指令跟踪流内的指令元素和数据跟踪流内的数据元素用键标记 值KV，使得可以在数据元素和对应的指令元素之间进行匹配。 当满足预定条件时，同步标记66插入指令跟踪流10和数据跟踪流12两者中，以便在随后分析数据时允许在指令元素和数据元素之间进行精确的相关。

公开(公告)号：US20170308491A1

公开(公告)日：2017-10-26

申请号：US15479556

申请日：2017-04-05

Applicant: ARM Limited

Inventor： Michael John GIBBS

IPC: G06F13/362 ,  G06F13/40 ,  G05B19/042

CPC classification number: G06F13/3625 ,  G05B19/0423 ,  G06F13/4068

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for combining trace data from a plurality of trace sources. The apparatus has an input interface to receive trace data from the plurality of trace sources, and an output interface from which to issue a trace stream incorporating the trace data from each of those trace sources. A network of interconnected funnel elements is used to combine the trace data received at the input interface from the plurality of trace sources in order to produce the trace stream. Each funnel element has a plurality of input ports and an output port, and has associated control circuitry to control connection of the input ports to the output port. Each input port is arranged to receive either trace data from one of the trace sources, or trace data output from an output port of another funnel element in the network. The control circuitry is arranged to determine, from information provided by at least one setup transaction received by the control circuitry, control data indicative of a number of trace sources whose trace data is to be routed through each of the input ports of the associated funnel element. The control circuitry then controls the timing allocation of the associated funnel element's output port to each input port in dependence on the control data. This provides a mechanism for hiding the topology of the funnel elements from the various trace sources, so that the proportion of the bandwidth within the trace stream available to each trace source is not dependent on the topology of the funnel elements.

公开(公告)号：US20130339686A1

公开(公告)日：2013-12-19

申请号：US13968991

申请日：2013-08-16

Applicant: ARM Limited

Inventor： John Michael HORLEY ,  Simon John CRASKE ,  Michael John GIBBS ,  Paul Anthony GILKERSON

IPC: G06F9/30

CPC classification number: G06F11/3495 ,  G06F9/30072 ,  G06F9/30094 ,  G06F9/30101 ,  G06F9/30123 ,  G06F9/30145 ,  G06F11/348

Abstract: A processing circuit is responsive to at least one conditional instruction to perform a conditional operation in dependence on a current value of a subset of at least one condition flag. A trace circuit is provided for generating trace data elements indicative of operations performed by the processing circuit. When the processing circuit 4 processes at least one selected instruction, then the trace circuit generates a trace data element including a traced condition value indicating at least the subset of condition flags required to determine the outcome of the conditional instruction. A corresponding diagnostic apparatus uses the traced condition value to determine a processing outcome of the at least one conditional instruction.

Abstract translation: 处理电路响应于至少一个条件指令，以根据至少一个条件标志的子集的当前值执行条件操作。 提供跟踪电路用于产生指示由处理电路执行的操作的跟踪数据元素。 当处理电路4处理至少一个所选择的指令时，跟踪电路产生跟踪数据元素，跟踪数据元素包括至少指示确定条件指令的结果所需的条件标志的子集的跟踪条件值。 相应的诊断装置使用跟踪条件值来确定至少一个条件指令的处理结果。