By supporting the powerful 64-bit version of Embedded Trace Macrocell™ (ETMv4) from ARM® on AppliedMicro®’s X-Gene™ Server on a Chip™ processor, ASSET® InterTech’s SourcePoint® debugger platform will shorten the time-to-market for enterprise systems in the cloud, such as the rapidly emerging microserver systems.
ARM’s ETMv4 is part of CoreSight™ technology which supports debug and trace processes on complex multi-core systems-on-a-chip (SoC). AppliedMicro’s X-Gene is a scalable, fully integrated multicore SoC with enterprise-class ARM cores.
“Effective and efficient trace capabilities are critical in 64-bit system development because the firmware and software code base becomes very complex and quite extensive,” said Larry Osborn, ASSET product manager for software debug and trace tools. “ARM’s ETMv4 can provide software engineers with all of the trace data they need and SourcePoint gives them visibility into that data to rapidly analyze any problem areas in code execution. We are very excited about supporting X-Gene developers. They are working on some of the most advanced cloud-based enterprise server systems.”
SourcePoint includes a range of powerful analytical trace tools that support ARM’s ETMv4, such as cycle-accurate time stamps per instruction, a graphical call chart view, function profiling, extensive search features and others.
To serve a wide range of development needs, two ASSET run-control probes support the SourcePoint ARM debugger. The LC-500Se and LX-1000e access ARM code executing on X-Gene processors via the chip’s JTAG port and apply many of the device’s internal resources to debug code. The LX-1000e Trace Port Analyzer includes the added capability over the LC-500Se of storing collected trace data, which can amount to many seconds of code execution.
Embedded developers might also be interested in a recent eBook published by ASSET on how to capitalize on the capabilities of ARM’s System Trace Macrocell (STM).
