Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing – Processing control – Context preserving (e.g. – context swapping – checkpointing,...
Reexamination Certificate
2006-03-28
2006-03-28
Pan, Daniel H. (Department: 2183)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: processing
Processing control
Context preserving (e.g., context swapping, checkpointing,...
C712S227000
Reexamination Certificate
active
07020768
ABSTRACT:
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for facilitating debugging of sequences of processing instructions. The apparatus comprises a processing circuit for executing processing instructions, the processing circuit having multiple states of operation, with each state of operation being assigned a context identifier to identify the state of operation. Further, logic is provided for facilitating debugging of sequences of processing instructions executed by the processing circuit. The logic comprises control logic, responsive to control parameters, to perform predetermined actions to facilitate debugging, and triggering logic for generating the control parameters dependent on data received from the processing circuit indicative of the processing being performed by the processing circuit. The triggering logic comprises at least one context identifier comparator for comparing a context identifier provided within the data received from the processing circuit with a predetermined context identifier, and to generate a signal indicating whether that context identifier matches the predetermined context identifier. By this approach, the present invention enables a data processing apparatus to be provided with tracing mechanisms and/or debugging mechanisms which can reliably operate even in situations where the sequences of processing instructions from different states of operation occupy overlapping regions in the memory's address space.
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Allue Conrado Blasco
Berent Anthony Neil
Devereux Ian Victor
Swaine Andrew Brookfield
Williamson David James
ARM Limited
Nixon & Vanderhye P.C.
Pan Daniel H.
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