PTM

The Program Trace Macrocell (PTM) provides comprehensive debug and trace facilities for ARM Cortex-A processors. PTM allows to capture information of the executed processor instructions without affecting the processor's performance and providing a gap less data stream. Depending on the implementation the trace information is either exported immediately after it has been captured, through a special trace port or is saved to an on chip trace buffer. Processors that include an PTM allow detailed program execution to be recorded and saved in real time. This information can be used to analyze program flow and execution time, perform profiling and locate software bugs that are otherwise very hard to locate. A typical situation in which code trace is extremely valuable, is to find out how and why a "program crash" occurred in case of a runaway program count. A debugger provides the user interface to J-Trace and the stored trace data. The debugger enables all the PTM facilities and displays the trace information that has been captured.