KR101385817B1 - Apparatus for debugging integrated interpreter of programming language and computer system combined the smae - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a debugging device having a built-in programming language interpreter, and an object of the present invention is to provide a debugging device in which a programming language interpreter and a debug interface capable of direct manipulation by a user are implemented on a single semiconductor chip.
In order to achieve the above object, a debugging device including a programming language interpreter provided therein includes: an input / output unit configured to receive a debugging algorithm procedure in a programming language source text format and output a result; A programming language interpreter for interpreting a debugging algorithm procedure received through the input / output unit; And a debug interface for transmitting a debugging signal corresponding to an algorithm interpreted through the programming language interpreter to an external microprocessor and transferring information input therefrom to the programming language interpreter, wherein the programming language interpreter includes: And converting the information of the external microprocessor received from the user into a form readable by the user and outputting the information to the outside through the input / output unit.

Description

Apparatus for debugging integrated interpreter of programming language and computer system combined the smae}

The present invention relates to a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter and a computer system having the same. More specifically, the programming language interpreter and debug interface capable of direct manipulation by a user are implemented on a single semiconductor chip. An apparatus and a computer system having the same are provided.

In general, a microprocessor includes a transmitter / receiver that transmits and receives various microprocessor internal information necessary for debugging as a digital signal to an external debugging device, and generally includes a Test Access Point (TAP) or a Debug Acces Point ( DAP). The communication protocol between the TAP and the debugging device connected to the TAP depends on the configuration of the external microprocessor pins for communication and the specifications of the signals input and output through the pins. Such communication protocols include JTAG or SWD. In addition, a debugging device supporting such a debugging communication protocol is called a JTAG debugger or a serial wire debugger.

Conventional debugging devices are connected in the form of adapters between the host computer and the microprocessor-mounted system, where the programmer writes a binary program compiled and linked on the host computer to a nonvolatile memory such as flash memory inside the microprocessor. And show the programmer whether or not the binary program of the user to be executed is normally operated through debugging software installed in the host system.

Such a conventional debugging device is usually manufactured as one independent hardware system and connected to the host system through a USB or Ethernet cable, and connected through an external microprocessor and a JTAG or SWD dedicated cable, thereby allowing a user such as a programmer to use the host system. Sending debugging commands allows the host and external microprocessor systems to communicate.

Therefore, in order for a programmer to easily use such a debugging device, a device driver software system dedicated to the debugging device must be installed in a host system such as a PC, and such a device driver software system dedicated to the conventional debugging device operates the programmer's host system. This may be different from the system, so a separate software system must be installed for this purpose. In other words, even if a debugging device is connected to a host system and an external microprocessor-mounted system to configure a network, debugging is impossible unless a separate debugging device driver software system is installed in the host system.

The dedicated driver software system for debugging devices receives debugging commands through a programmer and a graphical user interface (GUI), which in turn displays information about the external microprocessor system connected to the debugging device. However, such a GUI-based driver software system for debugging devices is easy to interact with humans, but automated debugging command transmission and external system information transmission by an external device in an unmanned environment is not easy.

In addition, such a debugging device is manufactured and distributed in the form of an independent hardware system in which various accessories are attached to a printed circuit board (PCB), so that a programmer using a conventional debugging device attaches it to a host system and then separates a communication cable. It can be used by connecting to an external microprocessor-mounted system. Accordingly, such a debugging device also has a problem such that the external microprocessor-mounted system is no longer an unnecessary part at the stage of manufacturing and distribution and sale.

The present invention is to solve the problems described above, and has a debugging device with a programming language interpreter that allows a programming language interpreter and a debug interface that can be directly manipulated by a user to be implemented on a single semiconductor chip and It is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the input and output unit for receiving a programming algorithm source text format debugging algorithm procedure and output the result; A programming language interpreter for interpreting a debugging algorithm procedure received through the input / output unit; And a debug interface for transmitting a debugging signal corresponding to an algorithm interpreted through the programming language interpreter to an external microprocessor and transferring information input therefrom to the programming language interpreter, wherein the programming language interpreter includes: The present invention provides a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter, which converts information of an external microprocessor received from a user into a form that can be read by a user and outputs the information to the outside through the input / output unit.

The debugging device in which the programming language interpreter of the present invention is embedded may include the input / output unit, the programming language interpreter, and a debug interface configured in a single semiconductor chip.

The input / output unit may be configured to support input / output of an ASCII code text form, and the programming language input to the program language interpreter is an interactive interpreter-type programming language designed to facilitate debugging. It may be desirable.

In this case, when the repeating structure command having one or more nested structures is input, the programming language interpreter may delay execution of the inputted commands until the end of the nested repeating structure is recognized.

In addition, the present invention is a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter; Wired and wireless communication unit; And a microprocessor.

In this case, in the computer system of the present invention, the input / output unit of the debugging device is connected to the wired / wireless communication unit, and the debug interface is connected to the microprocessor, so that the debugging operation of the microprocessor is performed through data communication with the wired / wireless communication unit at a remote place. It is possible to feature.

According to the debugging device in which the programming language interpreter of the present invention is incorporated as described above, the programming language interpreter and the essential debugging functions are integrated in a single semiconductor chip, and the semiconductor chip is a component of the debugging target system and one PCB or module. And integrated into one independent hardware system. Accordingly, the system to be debugged is developed and can be included in the system even at the stage of delivery to the end consumer, which can be usefully applied to debugging by the user even after the product is released, thereby preventing waste of hardware resources. It works.

In addition, a programming language interpreter is embedded in a single semiconductor chip to describe a debugging algorithm as a programming language procedure, and the debugging algorithm described above is input to a communication line connected to the debugging device, and immediately executed and executed without a separate storage procedure. By being able to re-send the results, not only is it easier to use, but also the work speed and efficiency are improved.

1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating an instruction procedure repetition structure of the programming language interpreter of FIG. 1.
2B is an exemplary diagram illustrating a source for describing a debugging procedure algorithm according to a grammar rule of a programming language applied to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a computer system including the debugging device of FIG. 1.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present invention when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

It is to be understood that the following specific structure or functional description is illustrative only for the purpose of describing an embodiment in accordance with the concepts of the present invention and that embodiments in accordance with the concepts of the present invention may be embodied in various forms, It should not be construed as limited to the embodiments.

The embodiments according to the concept of the present invention can make various changes and have various forms, so that specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in this specification or application. However, it should be understood that the embodiments according to the concept of the present invention are not intended to limit the present invention to specific modes of operation, but include all changes, equivalents and alternatives included in the spirit and scope of the present invention.

The terms first and / or second etc. may be used to describe various components, but the components are not limited to these terms. The terms may be named for the purpose of distinguishing one element from another, for example, without departing from the scope of the right according to the concept of the present invention, the first element being referred to as the second element, The second component may also be referred to as a first component.

It is to be understood that when an element is referred to as being "connected" or "connected" to another element, it may be directly connected or connected to the other element, . On the other hand, when it is mentioned that an element is "directly connected" or "directly connected" to another element, it should be understood that there are no other elements in between. Other expressions for describing the relationship between components, such as "between" and "between" or "adjacent to" and "directly adjacent to" should also be interpreted.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It is to be understood that the terms such as " comprises "or" having "in this specification are intended to specify the presence of stated features, integers, But do not preclude the presence or addition of steps, operations, elements, parts, or combinations thereof.

Unless defined otherwise, all terms used herein, including technical or scientific terms, have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries are to be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning of the context in the relevant art and, unless explicitly defined herein, are to be interpreted as ideal or overly formal Do not.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like reference symbols in the drawings denote like elements.

1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a debugging device 100 having a programming language interpreter according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an input / output unit 110, a programming language interpreter 120, a debug interface 130, and the like. It can be seen.

The input / output unit 110 receives a debugging algorithm procedure in a programming language source text format and performs a function of outputting a result.

The input / output unit 110 is connected with external pins 115 for exchanging signals with another external host system that transmits a debugging command procedure. In this embodiment, the RX pin and the output receiving the input signal are implemented according to the UART standard. A configuration having a TX pin for transmitting a signal is shown. However, these pins are configured to support the protocol between the semiconductor chip and the semiconductor chip, and are not necessarily limited to the above UART standard, and it is natural that any common protocol such as SPI, I2C, USB, and Ethernet can be supported. .

Here, the input / output unit 110 may be characterized by supporting input and output in the form of ASCII code text, unlike a general debugging device. When the ASCII code text input / output is supported, a debugging command string input by a user directly using a communication terminal may be transmitted to the programming language interpreter 120 through the input / output unit 110 in ASCII code text format. . Furthermore, since such ASCII code text is a standard included in a binary digital signal, it is also possible to transmit input / output to the device from other external devices as well as the user.

In this case, although not shown in the drawings, the debugging device 100 according to the embodiment of the present invention may further include a security module for encrypting / decrypting data input / output through the input / output unit 110. Naturally, any security encryption / decryption technique can be applied to the security module.

The programming language interpreter 120 performs a function of executing a debugging algorithm procedure received from the input / output unit 110, and the debug interface 130 corresponds to a debugging signal corresponding to the algorithm interpreted by the programming language interpreter 120. It sends the data to a connected external microprocessor and retrieves information from it.

In other words, the programming language interpreter 120 interprets the input string, converts it into a series of debugging operation instructions, and passes the same to the debugging interface 130, and the debug interface 130 provides TAP pins of an external microprocessor. The pins 135 are connected to each other to control the operating state of the external microprocessor or transmit the memory contents under the control of the programming language interpreter 120.

The debugging interface 130 encodes the received debugging command into a debug protocol signal, and the encoded debug protocol signal is transmitted to a TAP of a microprocessor connected to the debug interface pin 135. In addition, the signal transmitted from the TAP of the microprocessor may be transmitted to the debugging interface 130 through the debug interface pin 135, and the debugging interface 130 may decode the transmitted signal and transmit it to the programming interpreter 120. have.

The programming interpreter 120 may convert the information of the decoded microprocessor into an ASCII code string that can be decoded by the user and output the ASCII code string to the outside through the input / output unit 110.

In this case, the external microprocessor includes all conventional microcontrollers, MCUs, CPUs, Cores, and the like, collectively referred to as all types of microprocessors having a TAP.

Meanwhile, the debug interface pins 135 shown in the embodiment of FIG. 1 include pins for communication with a microprocessor, including TAP compatible with ARM's Serial Wire debug protocol, and include SWCLK, SWDIO, SWO and the like are shown. Here, the RST pin is connected to the reset pin of a conventional microprocessor to transmit a reset signal.

However, the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto. In addition to the serial wire debug protocol described above, for example, standard pins such as TMS, TDI, TDO, TCK, etc. according to the JTAG standard according to a debugging protocol provided by a microprocessor manufacturer for general debugging work. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the debug interface 130 may be implemented.

Hereinafter, the debugging command procedure inputted to the input / output unit 110 and interpreted through the programming language interpreter 120 will be described in more detail through programming examples.

Debugging procedures inputted in ASCII code strings into the debugging device according to an embodiment of the present invention are executed in units of instructions, and are usually executed as conditional execution of an instruction, an iterative loop of an instruction set, conditional escape of an iterative loop, assignment of variables, and arithmetic operations. It is described utilizing the programming language features of. Such a procedure may be advantageously implemented through logic circuits designed and programmed in the device configuration.

The command procedure input through the input / output unit 110 is a string composed of ASCII characters as described above, and the programming language interpreter 120 that recognizes the newline character as the last character to be inputted interprets the string. The debugging command is transmitted to the external microprocessor through the debug interface 130, and then the response is transmitted from the external microprocessor and output through the input / output unit 110.

The programming language input to the program language interpreter 120 is a dedicated programming language designed to facilitate debugging, and is commonly used in C, Java, Pascal, FORTRAN, and grammars commonly used in the field of computer science including the technical field of the present invention. This is another inventive programming language. Programming languages that are typically dedicated to this particular field of work are implemented in an interactive interpreter manner.

The purpose of such programming language technology is to enable a computer system to effectively fulfill various types of unforeseen demands that a user can direct to the computer system. The purpose of applying the interpreter is to effectively execute the debugging task of various users. That is, the debugging device according to the embodiment of the present invention can control the input and output signals using a single programming language grammar system for various debugging signal input and output types according to the manufacturer of the microprocessor to be debugged, Using the manufacturer's programming language source text input, it is possible to debug various manufacturers' microprocessors with one device.

Hereinafter, operations and effects of a debugging device-specific programming language applied to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with one or more grammar examples.

Programming language grammar for describing the command procedure Example 1 is a command for initializing communication with the external microprocessor to be debugged. Since the newline character included in the string is not displayed on the screen, it is displayed as '<newline>', and the space character is used. Also shown as '<space>'. When Example 1 is input and executed in this debugging device, it responds with an IDCODE sent from the connected microprocessor. When ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessor is connected, 2BA01477 is output in hexadecimal. If the external microprocessor is not physically connected, an error string will be answered.

Example 1

Line 1: cn <newline>

Answer: 2BA01477

Example 2 is a command for reading a data value stored in the memory specific location 0 of the microprocessor, and may be applied after the communication state is connected with the micro device through Example 1. Data values are output in hexadecimal.

Example 2

Line 1: gw <space> 0 <newline>

Answer: 10001FFC

Example 3 is an example of an instruction that functions to write an arbitrary decimal value 1000 at address 10000000 in the hexadecimal notation of a microprocessor memory specific position by the opposite action of Essie 2, and there is no response output.

Example 3

Line 1: pw <space> $ 10000000, 1000 <newline>

Example 4 shows an example of using a variable as a basic element of a programming language, and sequentially illustrates a command for writing a variable x plus a decimal number 3 and 4, and a command for outputting a value written in x. The number 7 is printed after the second newline. The programming language interpreter 120 may provide various arithmetic and memory manipulation functions in addition to the basic arithmetic operations.

Example 4

Line 1: x: = 3 + 4 <newline>

Line 2: x <newline>

Answer: 7

Example 5 is an example of repeating an instruction procedure that can be executed repeatedly, such as Examples 2, 3, and 4, and is written to the address of 10000000 hexadecimal, a specific location in the microprocessor memory, every 1000 milliseconds. It is an example of reading and outputting the data value. The debugging process is repeated indefinitely by inputting the gw command of Example 2 and the wt command that delays the execution of the debugging device for a certain number of milliseconds, and the lp and el commands that indicate the beginning and end of the iteration structure in the middle. It was made.

Example 5

Line 1: lp <newline>

Row 2: gw $ 10000000 <newline>

Line 3: wt 1000 <newline>

Line 4: el <newline>

Answer: infinitely repeat data values

However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention is not necessarily limited to the programming language described above, and may be replaced with any programming language having the same or similar functions.

FIG. 2A is a flowchart illustrating an instruction procedure repetition structure of the programming language interpreter of FIG. 1. The flowchart illustrates a process of executing the instruction procedure repetition structure of Example 5 in the interactive interpreter environment.

The repetition structure is for repeatedly executing a command between a start command and an end command, and may be divided into commands indicating the start and end of the repetition, and one or more repetition structures may be overlapped between one repetition structure. In the programming language interpreter provided in the embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, such as a loop statement of a conventional programming language, the repetition is stopped by branching after the end of the repetition. There is a command to exit.

That is, referring to FIG. 2A, a process of delaying the commands input after the start of the repeating structure until the command indicating the end of the nested repeating structure is interpreted and executing the delayed command when the end of the nested repeating structure is interpreted. Indicates.

By applying the above algorithm, from the beginning of the iteration structure described in the first line of Example 5, the commands of the second and third lines which are sequentially inputted are stored without being executed, and the stored commands are recognized when the iteration structure is finished in the fourth line. Is executed. By applying such an algorithm, if a user sequentially inputs inputs conforming to programming language rules through an input / output unit, the instruction procedure can be executed without problems even if one or more nested repeating structures are included in the instruction procedure. . Furthermore, in the embodiment of the present invention to which the algorithm is applied, it is not necessary to store the entire instruction procedure inside the device, thereby saving internal memory space, and receiving and executing all combinable algorithm instruction procedures through the input / output unit. It can provide an effect such as being able to.

Referring to FIG. 2A, iterative structure processing of a programming language interpreter according to an embodiment of the present invention may indicate the start and end of a repeatable repeatable structure according to the type of an instruction when an instruction input according to a grammar is interpreted. On the premise, after receiving the command (S210), it is determined whether the command is included in the repetitive structure (S220), if included in the repetitive structure, and stores the corresponding command (S230). After repeating until the end of the overlapped repeating structure is confirmed (S250), and when the end of the nested repeating structure is confirmed (S250), executing the stored command (S260) and outputting the result (S270). It can be confirmed. In this case, if the current input command does not correspond to the overlapped repetition structure as a result of the determination (S220), the method may further include immediately executing the command (S240).

That is, in the embodiment of the present invention, the command procedures may be input by a user through an input tool such as a keyboard using an RS-232C communication terminal in the host system, or a command sequence written in the host system in accordance with programming language syntax. It is possible to transfer a batch file (batch file, etc.) so that the batch can be processed, and there is an advantage in that it is unnecessary to store instructions by the memory in this process. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the batch input file may be variously manufactured and processed according to a debugging operation intended by a user and an external microprocessor standard.

FIG. 2B is a diagram illustrating a source describing a debugging procedure algorithm according to a grammar rule of a programming language applied to an embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates an example screen for embedding firmware in a microprocessor product EFM32TG840 of Energy Micro. The left side of each line is a debugging command, and the string starting with ';' on the right side of each line is a comment.

However, the drawing is only an example according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. In addition to the above-described exemplary drawing, the programming language interpreter 120 of FIG. 1 includes a combination of functions of a conventional programming language interpreter and debugging instructions intended by a user. The interpreted procedure may be interpreted and transmitted to the debug interface 130 to perform a function of executing.

3 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an independent hardware system including the debugging device of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, an independent hardware system 300 such as a PC having a debugging device according to an embodiment of the present invention may include a debugging device 310, a wireless modem unit 320, and a debugging target microprocessor 330 and 340. It can be seen that including the configuration.

The debugging device 310 is a debugging device for a single semiconductor chip in which a programming language interpreter described above with reference to FIG. 1 is embedded, and the configuration and function thereof are referred to the above description.

The input / output unit of the debugging device 310 may be connected to the wireless modem unit 320 and connected to an external network through an antenna 325 for transmitting and receiving radio frequencies. The debug interface of the debugging device 310 may include a microphone processor 1, 2 may be connected to the TAP of 330 and 340. Here, the external connection line 315 serves to facilitate the development of the hardware system by being connected to the host system when communication input / output using radio frequency is not easy at the stage of developing the hardware system as in the conventional debugging apparatus. In other words, the hardware system 300 including the debugging apparatus 310 including the interactive programming language interpreter may be directly inputted by a user using a communication terminal that is generally used without additional debugging software. This provides the advantage of being able to run the intended debugging task.

In the conventional firmware download procedure using radio frequency communication, a boot loader program capable of receiving firmware code data in the memory areas of the microprocessors 1 and 2 (330 and 340) should be built-in. However, as shown in FIG. When the debugging device 310 according to the example is mounted in the system, even if the boot loader program is not embedded in the microprocessors 1 and 2 (330 and 340), since the debugging device 310 has a built-in debug interface, The firmware can be downloaded by directly manipulating the memory, thus eliminating the need for a separate boot loader program.

Here, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the debugging device 310 composed of a single chip is not limited to the appearance referred to as a semiconductor chip package in the art, and the semiconductor chip forming one or more blocks in the art. Naturally, it may be composed of one module. However, when the debugging device 310 according to the embodiment of the present invention is configured to have an external shape of a semiconductor chip package, the device is manufactured to have an external dimension of 10 mm (mm) in width, 10 mm in length and 2 mm in thickness in a conventional technique. It may be desirable, and may be used as one or more accessories of a conventional microprocessor mounted system.

The method of integrating components on a semiconductor chip includes programming functions into firmware in a flash memory of a general MCU, programming logic circuits on an FPGA, and wiring a logic circuit on a silicon wafer and mass production. There is no doubt that the present invention may be implemented in any conventional manner including the methods described above.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

100: debugging device 110: input and output unit
120: Programming Language Interpreter 130: Debug Interface
300: hardware system 310: debugging device
320: wireless modem unit 330, 340: microprocessor

Claims (7)

An input / output unit 110 for receiving a debugging algorithm procedure in a programming language source text format and outputting a result, a programming language interpreter 120 for interpreting the debugging algorithm procedure inputted through the input / output unit 110, and the programming language. A debugging apparatus including a debug interface 130 for transmitting a debugging signal corresponding to an algorithm interpreted through an interpreter 120 to an external microprocessor and transferring information input therefrom to the programming language interpreter 120.
The programming language interpreter 120 converts the information of the external microprocessor received from the debug interface 130 into a form that can be read by a user, and then outputs it to the outside through the input / output unit 110.
The input / output unit 110, the programming language interpreter 120, and the debug interface 130 are configured in a single semiconductor chip.
The input / output unit 110 is a debugging device with a built-in programming language interpreter, characterized in that for supporting input and output in the form of ASCII code text.
delete delete The method of claim 1,
The programming language input to the programming language interpreter (120) is a debugging device with a programming language interpreter, characterized in that the dedicated programming language of the interactive interpreter designed to facilitate debugging.
5. The method of claim 4,
The programming language interpreter 120 includes a programming language interpreter that delays execution of the inputted commands until an end of the nested repeating structure is detected when the repeating structure command having one or more nested structures is input. Debugging device.
The input / output unit 110 of the debugging device having a programming language interpreter according to any one of claims 1, 4, and 5 is connected to a wired / wireless communication unit, and the debug interface 130 of the debugging device is a microprocessor. And a debugging operation of the microprocessor through a data communication with the wired / wireless communication unit at a remote location. delete

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