| AX68300 |
The AX68300 is an in-circuit emulator designed specifically
for the Motorola 68k family. It offers sophisticated features not normally found
in tools sold within this price range. Within the CPU-32 family, the
target processor can be reconfigured to run in various modes very easily. The
AX68302 emulates all microcontroller package types, even soldered ones that
are emulated in OnCE mode, by means of special PressOn adapters.
Being common to all Hitex development tools, the HiTOP user interface is also used on the AX68302. The interface enables an easy exchange of development tools while maintaining a consistent interactive environment to the outside world. Naturally, the entry-level system AX68300 matches all Hitex products ranging from simulators to high-end in-circuit emulators.
HiTOP distinguishes between breakpoints and triggers. Breakpoints can be set in the code area of the program and in ROM. Up to 20 breakpoints or breakpoint regions are possible. Breakpoints cause the program to stop at a specified address before the respective instruction is executed. Triggers serve to control trace recording and to measure the real time between trigger events at a resolution of 100 ns. Triggers may also generate a signal to control oscilloscopes or logic analyzers. Conversely, an external signal can be used as a trigger event. Up to four independent triggers allow specific code or data accesses to be recognized. A 16-bit-wide counter for counting trigger events or delaying trigger actions is allocated to each trigger. Triggers can be combined logically, so that only a sequence of triggers releases a trigger action. Neither breakpoints nor triggers affect real-time operation of the target system. A special emulator feature allows emulation to be halted due to processor-internal events, e.g. the transfer of a certain value from one processor register into another.
The AX's efficient performance analysis feature is an invaluable aid towards measuring the performance of any user application. Runtime measurement, time intervals between events, statistics, code coverage, etc. give detailed information on how to optimize the user's projects. All results may either be displayed in a tabular or histogram format, which makes it easy to identify time-consuming procedures.
The trace buffer is able to record up to 8K 'frames' without affecting the real-time operation of the target system. An 80-bit-wide trace frame includes 24-bit addresses, 16-bit data, 16-bit processor-specific status information and 8 external TTL signals (asynchronous or synchronous recording at a user-definable juncture). Trace recording can be controlled by the trigger system, which permits both start/stop and filtering. Filtering means that trace frames are only recorded when they satisfy a complex condition. In this way, unnecessary information is not recorded in memory and only information of interest is recorded. It's even possible to exclusively record high-level language lines. Thanks to special recording modes, the program's behavior can be recorded before, after, and during the occurrence of specific events. The recorded data may be displayed in binary, assembler mnemonics, or as a high-level language trace. The current trace buffer can be displayed while the emulator is running, without affecting the real-time operation of the application (Snap Shot). If the trace buffer is full, either the oldest entries will be overwritten or recording will be stopped, together with an optional emulation halt.