Difference between revisions of "MTB specifics"

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= Configuration options provided by J-Link =
 
= Configuration options provided by J-Link =
 
An MTB consists of the following registers / bit fields that allow configuration of the MTB and the amount of RAM it uses:
 
An MTB consists of the following registers / bit fields that allow configuration of the MTB and the amount of RAM it uses:
  +
{| class="wikitable"
// MTB_BASE 32-bit register that specifies the base address of the MTB buffer
 
  +
!Register / Bit field
// MTB_POINTER 32-bit register that specifies the offset (rel. to BASE) where the next trace packet will be stored by the HW
 
  +
!Description
// MTB_MASTER.MASK 5-bit bitfield that specifies the wrap-around point for the auto-inc logic of the MTB, on packet store
 
  +
|-
  +
|MTB_BASE
  +
|32-bit register that specifies the base address of the MTB buffer
  +
|-
  +
|MTB_POINTER
  +
|32-bit register that specifies the offset (rel. to BASE) where the next trace packet will be stored by the HW
  +
|-
  +
|MTB_MASTER.MASK
  +
|5-bit bitfield that specifies the wrap-around point for the auto-inc logic of the MTB, on packet store
  +
|}
  +
While the MTB_BASE register is read-only for J-Link, the MTB_POINTER and MTB_MASTER.MASK can be written by J-Link. This allows the MTB RAM usage to be configured.

Revision as of 14:11, 9 July 2018

The ARM Micro Trace Buffer (MTB) is an on-chip trace buffer that allows to do post-mortem instruction trace via a regular J-Link with no need of a specific J-Trace unit. The MTB will use a specific amount of the on-chip RAM to store trace data while the core executes instructions. MTB is mainly used on smaller MCUs like Cortex-M0+/M23/M33 based ones.

Limitations

MTB is a very limited version of trace that has the following limitations:

  • Instruction trace support only
  • No streaming trace possible
  • A portion of the target RAM may not be used by the application if MTB is used

Configuration options provided by J-Link

An MTB consists of the following registers / bit fields that allow configuration of the MTB and the amount of RAM it uses:

Register / Bit field Description
MTB_BASE 32-bit register that specifies the base address of the MTB buffer
MTB_POINTER 32-bit register that specifies the offset (rel. to BASE) where the next trace packet will be stored by the HW
MTB_MASTER.MASK 5-bit bitfield that specifies the wrap-around point for the auto-inc logic of the MTB, on packet store

While the MTB_BASE register is read-only for J-Link, the MTB_POINTER and MTB_MASTER.MASK can be written by J-Link. This allows the MTB RAM usage to be configured.