JPS62137626A - Trace device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate debugging and troubleshooting by adding the output of a register comparator circuit comparing the contents of a designated register with inputted ones to address information so as to store in a trace memory. CONSTITUTION:The trace device is constructed of an address trace circuit 1, an address trace memory 2, a maintenance panel 3, a microprocessor 4, the register comparator circuit 5, etc. The register in the microprocessor 4 is designated from the maintenance panel 3, and the output of the register comparator circuit 5 comparing the contents of the register with the inputted ones is added to the address information to store in the trace memory 2. And the output of the comparator circuit 5 is inputted to the address trace circuit 1, whereby the microprocessor 4 can be stopped when the contents coincide with the output of the address comparator circuit. Thus effective address information can be obtained only by adding bits for register comparison in the memory 2.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a microprogram-controlled control device, and particularly to a method suitable for a tracer that traces and records the operations of a microprocessor.

[Background of the invention]

In order to increase the density and functionality of microprocessors, it is necessary to achieve high integration, and when converting a processor into a single chip, it is important to incorporate an effective maintenance function. For this purpose, what is generally called a laser is used, and an example is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 59-206954.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a tracing method that uses as little trace memory as possible to trace effective information and is useful for maintenance and accident investigation.

[Summary of the Invention] Trace information commonly used and effective in control devices using microprocessors is microprogram addresses. However, it is difficult for a microprogram to directly control all the signal lines of a host device or device, and control is generally performed via a hardware control circuit. For this purpose, microprocessors and hardware control circuits register signals.

A series of operations are executed while synchronizing the hardware and the microprogram by exchanging interfaces using the interrupt signal 2 determination signal and the like.

Therefore, it can be seen that not only the microprogram address but also the register signal 2, interrupt signal 2, determination signal, etc. are valid and necessary as trace information. - However, devices such as disk controllers have dozens of register groups, several interrupt signals, and dozens of judgment bits, and tracing and recording all of these requires a huge amount of hardware. It requires a large amount of memory and is not practical. Here, the interrupt signal and judgment signal often directly modify the microprogram address,
There is no problem in excluding it from the tracing target. Next, regarding register signals, it is often effective to analyze defective phenomena, etc., if only one register, in extreme case only one bit, can be extracted out of multiple register signals. Often all you need to know is what a particular bit in a particular register is.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 1 denotes an address trace circuit, and 2 denotes an address trace memory, which are commonly used, so their operation will not be explained. The address trace circuit 1 is connected to the maintenance panel 3, and generally has a function of displaying a lamp or stopping the microprocessor 4 when the address specified by the maintenance panel is passed.

The feature of the present invention is that a register in the microprocessor is specified from the maintenance panel, and the output of a register compare circuit 5 that compares the contents of the specified register with the contents input from the maintenance panel is added to the address information. The purpose is to record it in the trace memory like this. Here, if only the match/mismatch of specific bits is to be compared, one additional bit is sufficient, and it is relatively easy to increase the number according to the function. It is also easy to configure the output of the compare circuit 5 to be input to the address trace circuit 1 and to stop the microprocessor when it matches the address compare output.

The register signal 6 input to the register compare circuit 5 is not particularly required for the present invention.

Since it is only necessary to extract ALU input signals of the microprocessor during free time (for example, ALU calculation time), the amount of hardware does not increase significantly. According to the invention,
Effective trace information can be obtained by simply adding pins 1 to 1 for register comparison to a conventionally used address trace memory, which is effective for debugging, accident analysis, etc.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, effective debugging means is provided not only in a single processor but also in a microprocessor system such as a multiprocessor or multi-run processor where common registers and shared memory are controlled by multiple microprograms. .

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the information structure in a trace memory in the case of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Address trace circuit, 2...Address trace memory, 3...Maintenance panel, 4...Microprocessor, 5...Register compare circuit, 6...Register signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a disk control device using a microprogram control method that controls data transfer between a host device and a disk drive device, a flag that compares the contents of a register is added to the microprogram address information, and the flag is recorded in the trace memory. tracing device.