A today's SoC contains multiple processors of different types, several different buses, loads of embedded software, and a multitude of discrete signals. With only a fraction of the internal signals visible at the chip I/O, there is very little visibility into what is going on inside the chip.

The fact that these SoCs are often embedded in machinery where a failure may only occur under real-life conditions further complicating the debug problem. Debugging these kinds of problems requires capturing the necessary data from deep within a chip at the time that the failure occurs.

Infineon Technologies has developed the Multi-Core Debug Solution (MCDS) to address the problem of debugging deeply embedded, multi-processor systems. By deploying MCDS in either a production SoC or a debug version of the SoC, you can execute real-time, cycle-accurate tracing of selected processors, buses, and signals within the chip non-intrusively, under real-life conditions, and without adding pins to the chip.