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- El Shobaki, Mohammed, et al.
(författare)
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A hardware and software monitor for high-level system-on-chip verification
- 2001
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Ingår i: Proceedings - International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design, ISQED. - 0769510256 ; , s. 56-61
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Verification of today's Systems-on-Chip (SoC) occur at low abstraction-levels, typically at register-transfer level (RTL). As the complexity of SoC designs grows, it is increasingly important to move verification to higher abstraction levels. Hardware/software co-simulation is a step in this direction, but is not sufficient due to inaccurate processor models, and slow hardware simulation speeds. System level monitoring, commonly used for event-based software debugging, provides information about task scheduling events, inter-task communication and synchronisation, semaphores/resources, I/O interrupts, etc. We present MAMon, a monitoring system that can both monitor the logic-level and the system-level in single/multiprocessor SoCs. A small hardware probe-unit is integrated in the SoC design and connects via a parallel port link to a host-based monitoring tool environment. The probe-unit collects all events in the target system in runtime, and timestamps them with a resolution of J ps. The events are then stored in a database on the host for further processing. The paper will describe MAMon and how it works for software and hardware monitoring. The paper also describe how system-level monitoring can be achieved non-instrusively by using a hardware-based Real-Time Kernel.
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| 2. |
- El Shobaki, Mohammed
(författare)
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On-Chip Monitoring for Non-Intrusive Hardware/Software Observability
- 2004
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The increased integration of hardware and software components intoday's state-of-the-art computer systems make them complex and hardto analyse, test, and debug. Moreover, the advances in hardwaretechnology give system designers enormous possibilities to explorehardware as a means to implement performance demandingfunctionality. We see examples of this trend in novel microprocessors,and Systems-on-Chip, that comprise reconfigurable logic allowing forhardware/software co-design. To succeed in developing computer systemsbased on these premises, it is paramount to have efficient designtools and methods.An important aspect in the development process is observability, i.e.,the ability to observe the system's behaviour at various levels ofdetail. These observations are required for many applications: whenlooking for design errors, during debugging, during performanceassessments and fine-tuning of algorithms, for extraction of designdata, and a lot more. In real-time systems, and computers that allowfor concurrent process execution, the observability must be obtainedwithout compromising the system's functional and timing behaviour.In this thesis we propose a monitoring system that can be applied fornon-intrusive run-time observations of real-time and concurrentcomputer systems. The monitoring system, designatedMultipurpose/Multiprocessor Application Monitor (MAMon), is based on ahardware probe unit (IPU) which is integrated with the observedsystem's hardware. The IPU collects process-level events from ahardware-implemented Real-Time Kernel (RTK), without perturbing thesystem, and transfers the events to an external computer for analysis,debugging, and visualisation. Moreover, the MAMon concept alsofeatures hybrid monitoring for collection of more fine-grainedinformation, such as program instructions and data flows. We describe MAMon's architecture, the implementation of two hardwareprototypes, and validation of the prototypes in differentcase-studies. The main conclusion is that process level events can betraced non-intrusively by integrating the IPU with a hardware RTK. Asubsidiary conclusion, but yet relevant, is that the IPU's smallfootprint makes it attractive for SoC designs, as it providesincreased system observability for a low hardware cost.
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| 3. |
- El Shobaki, Mohammed
(författare)
-
On-chip monitoring for non-intrusive hardware/software observability
- 2004
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The increased complexity in today's state-of-the-art computer systems make them hard to analyse, test, and debug. Moreover, the advances in hardware technology give system designers enormous possibilities to explore hardware as a means to implement performance demanding functionality. We see examples of this trend in novel microprocessors, and Systems-on-Chip, that comprise reconfigurable logic allowing for hardware/software co-design. To succeed in developing computer systems based on these premises, it is paramount to have efficient design tools and methods.An important aspect in the development process is observability, i.e., the ability to observe the system's behaviour at various levels of detail. These observations are required for many applications: when looking for design errors, during debugging, during performance assessments and fine-tuning of algorithms, for extraction of design data, and a lot more. In real-time systems, and computers that allow for concurrent process execution, the observability must be obtained without compromising the system's functional and timing behaviour.In this thesis we propose a monitoring system that can be used for nonintrusive run-time observations of real-time and concurrent computer systems. The monitoring system, designated Multipurpose/Multiprocessor Application Monitor (MAMon), is based on a hardware probe unit (IPU) which is integrated with the observed system s hardware. The IPU collects process-level events from a hardware Real-Time Kernel (RTK), without perturbing the system, and transfers the events to an external computer for analysis, debugging, and visualisation. Moreover, the MAMon concept also features hybrid monitoring for collection of more fine-grained information, such as program instructions and data flows.We describe MAMon s architecture, the implementation of two hardware prototypes, and validation of the prototypes in different case-studies. The main conclusion is that process level events can be traced non-intrusively by integrating the IPU with a hardware RTK. Furthermore, the IPU's small footprint makes it attractive for SoC designs, as it provides increased system observability at a low hardware cost.
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