First Silicon Solutions Announces the First Real-time Trace Enabled Tool Chain for the New MIPS32[tm]4KE[tm] and 4KSc[tm] Cores

PORTLAND, OR -- January 28, 2002 -- At Design Con 2002, First Silicon Solutions announced today the first real-time trace enabled tool chain for the new MIPS32 4KE and 4KSc Cores.

When MIPS Technologies decided to add Program and Data Trace to their new 4KE and future cores, they enlisted the help of First Silicon Solutions to develop the critical IP, the probe hardware to receive real-time trace data, and the control software at the MDI interface level.

The end result is a highly integrated tool chain that enables user configurable real-time on-chip and/or off-chip trace with complex triggers. For on-chip trace configurations, trace data is transmitted to the host PC through a standard JTAG connection. For off-chip configurations, both JTAG control signals and trace data are transmitted from the target system using a 38-pin controlled impedance Mictor cable.

To complement the MIPS real-time trace FS2 is developing additional On-Chip Instrumentation (OCIä) to enable such debug features as multicore debug, performance analysis and protocol analysis. Optional OCI blocks can be purchased directly from FS2.
 

"System-on-chip designs present challenges to firmware and software developers, such as the visibility into on-chip operations during debug sessions. FS2's silicon-based approach to capturing and compacting program counter and data trace information is an asset to MIPS licensees," said Brian Knowles, Vice President of Marketing, MIPS Technologies.
 

The Trace Control Block -- standard in the new MIPS Cores -- is designed to be configurable to meet the needs of any user. It's related logic in the JTAG control block provides a variety of powerful triggering and trace options, including the ability to compress and multiplex trace data output, as well as real-time trace and triggering of the instruction addresses, load/store addresses, and load/store data.
 

The FS2 BlackBox[tm] attaches to the target hardware via a JTAG connection or optional High-Speed Tap for off-chip trace collection. On the host side, the FS2 BlackBox supports the MDI interface standard enabling it to communicate to PC based development environments that are MDI compliant. It can be easily interfaced to any number of third party debuggers and compiler tool chains.

FS2 delivers first real-time trace enabled tool chain

"There are a wide variety of software tools for SoC design, but finding one that is seamlessly integrated from the host IDE to the silicon IP is uncommon. For MIPS32 4KE and 4KSc Cores FS2 is the first to seamlessly integrate everything from trace and trigger features in the core, through a high-performance hardware-assisted debugger that manages the debug block and the development system, to the ATI code|lab[tm] source level debugger and GNU compiler running on a Windows PC... making the first complete real-time trace enabled tool chain. The advantage is a significant time to market savings for our users," said Rick Leatherman, President of First Silicon Solutions.

Custom designed application specific IP

OCI Technology, an FS2 exclusive, consists of debug block logic integrated into the synthesizable Verilog or VHDL core. A major benefit of this approach is the ability to add complementary application specific IP that allows the tool to closely synchronize events and capture trace in multi-core designs; and provide enhancements such as performance analysis, code coverage, and network analysis in applications such as complex network processors.

The FS2 BlackBox shown is available with a variety of connectors including the ISA-MIPS/T Connection that allows connection to the CPU with a Trace Port via a 38-pin Mictor cable [not shown].
 

About First Silicon Solutions, Inc. - www.fs2.com

FS2 provides OCI enabled IP and custom development tools for testing and debug of microprocessor-based hardware and software. FS2 products help silicon vendors and their customers develop and more effectively market their products, reducing their development cycles, and allowing them to focus on delivering all the potential of the system on silicon. About the MIPS32 4KE and 4KSc Cores The MIPS32 4KE and 4KSc family represents the next-generation of 32-bit MIPS Cores, with features such as code compression, larger writeback cache memories and extensive clock gating, giving the SoC designer even more flexibility to optimize applications by maximizing performance and minimizing power consumption. About MIPS Technologies, Inc. - www.mips.com MIPS Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of industry standard processor architectures and cores for digital consumer and network applications. The company licenses its intellectual property to semiconductor companies, ASIC developers, and system OEMs.
 

About Accelerated Technology, Inc. [ATI] - www.acceleratedtechnology.com

ATI, the leading no-royalty embedded software solution, provides a variety of RTOS software, including the ATI code|lab[tm] source level debugger for the MIPS32 4KE.

FS2 Contact:

Rick Leatherman
503-292-6730 X102
rickleatherman@fs2.com
http://www.fs2.com/

FS2 Media Contact:
Gary Rains
Rains & Associates
503-297-1791
gary@rains.cc
http://www.rains.cc
 

 First Silicon Solutions, FS2, OCI and FS2 BlackBox are trademarks of First Silicon Solutions, Inc. All other names are the property of their respective owners.