Background debug mode interface: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 15:08, 14 October 2009

Revision as of 11:59, 14 March 2010

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in other words The increasing complexity of today’s software and hardware designs is leading to some fresh approaches to debugging. ''Silicon manufacturers offer more and more on-chip debugging features for emulation of new processors''.

This capability, implemented in various processors under such names as Background Debug Mode (BDM), [[Joint Test Action Group|JTAG]] and on-chip emulation{{dubious}}, puts basic debugging functions on the chip itself. With a BDM (1 wire interface) or JTAG (standard JTAG) [[debug port]], you control and monitor the microcontroller solely through the stable on-chip debugging services.

This debugging mode runs even when the target system crashes and enables developers to continue investigating the cause of the crash.

==Microcontroller application development==

A good development tool environment is important to reduce total development time and cost. Users want to debug their application program under conditions that imitate the actual setup of their system. Because of that, the capability to debug a user program in an actual target system is required. This is known as in-circuit debugging. Furthermore, most new MCUs have nonvolatile memory such as Flash[[flash memory]] so that programming code on the target system is also required.{{dubious}} This is known as [[In-system programming|in-circuit programming]].

To support in-circuit debugging and programming requirements, the HC08 Family has the monitor mode and the HCS08 and RS08 utilize a background debug mode (BDM). The background debug hardware on the HCS08 consists of a background debug controller (BDC) and debug module (DBG). The background debug hardware on the RS08 consists of the background debug controller (BDC) only.