Category: Software Debug and Trace

Larry Traylor’s new x86 Debug and Trace eBook

Alan Sguigna

May 6, 2018
1:10 pm

Larry Traylor, an industry luminary in the world of x86 architecture debug and trace technologies, has published a new eBook on this fascinating topic. Here’s my review.

Built-In Self Test (BIST) for PCI Express using Embedded Run-Control

Alan Sguigna

April 22, 2018
8:40 pm

In previous articles, I’ve written about the use of JTAG-based run-control for remote debug. Facebook presented an example of this a few weeks ago at the Open Compute Summit. This blog describes the real-time performance of such a BIST we designed for PCI Express link training tests.

Facebook OpenBMC At-Scale Debug at the OCP Summit

Alan Sguigna

April 15, 2018
6:05 pm

ASSET gets a nod at the Open Compute Summit for our leadership in At-Scale Debug.

The MinnowBoard Chronicles eBook now available

Alan Sguigna

March 25, 2018
8:31 pm

For those who may have missed it, I've been blogging about my experiences with the MinnowBoard Turbot for the last 15 months. Now, finally, all the blogs have been combined into a 138-page compendium of my learnings about x86 architecture, UEFI, Yocto Linux, and many other technical topics. Check it out at The MinnowBoard Chronicles (note: requires registration).

Embedded Run-Control for Power-On Self Test

Alan Sguigna

March 18, 2018
5:07 pm

High-end, mission-critical systems often use a plethora of diagnostic routines for power-on self test (POST), data logging, operational measurements, Built-In Self Test (BIST), and platform audits. Embedded x86 JTAG run-control adds out-of-band services to this mix. This article describes one such use case for Power-On Self Test (POST) of PCI Express ports.

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 31: First attempts to debug the Linux kernel

Alan Sguigna

March 11, 2018
4:58 pm

In Episode 30, I finally succeeded in building a Yocto Linux image for the MinnowBoard. But, it won’t boot! Is it time to drag out a copy of SourcePoint to help?

Embedded API library for at-scale JTAG-based hardware-assisted debugging

Alan Sguigna

February 14, 2018
7:31 am

Out-of-band access between on-board BMCs and CPU JTAG chains is now a de facto implementation on hyperscale servers manufactured by the ODMs. This article describes the BMC firmware library within our ScanWorks Embedded Diagnostics (SED) product used to run diagnostics at-scale.

Spectre, Meltdown, and embedded MSR access

Alan Sguigna

February 5, 2018
6:52 am

In the article JTAG and run-control API in BMCs for at-scale debug, I described how embedding the Intel ITP run-control library down on a service processor provides for a rich set of target-based functions for debug forensics. How might this apply to reading MSRs, such as the ones created to address Spectre and Meltdown.

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 30: using all 16 threads on my Ryzen?

Alan Sguigna

January 14, 2018
5:34 pm

In my last blog, I observed that running Yocto Linux builds with all 16 threads of my new AMD Ryzen 7 1700X machine would always crash. Running under VirtualBox and only using one thread always worked; but it took seven hours. Could I achieve a compromise?

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 29: My new AMD Ryzen 7 CPU works, kind of

Alan Sguigna

December 25, 2017
11:46 am

Out of the frying pan, and into the fire: I beat the #&@! out of my new CPU from AMD, and the segmentation faults have gone away. But, now the new system is crashing!

Category: Software Debug and Trace

Larry Traylor’s new x86 Debug and Trace eBook

Built-In Self Test (BIST) for PCI Express using Embedded Run-Control

Facebook OpenBMC At-Scale Debug at the OCP Summit

The MinnowBoard Chronicles eBook now available

Embedded Run-Control for Power-On Self Test

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 31: First attempts to debug the Linux kernel

Embedded API library for at-scale JTAG-based hardware-assisted debugging

Spectre, Meltdown, and embedded MSR access

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 30: using all 16 threads on my Ryzen?

The MinnowBoard Chronicles Episode 29: My new AMD Ryzen 7 CPU works, kind of

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