Debug Support
Copyright © ARM Limited 2000. All rights reserved.
8-17
8.5
Debug access to the caches
It is desirable for the debugger to examine the contents of the instruction and data
caches during debug operations. This is achieved in two steps.
1.
The debugger determines if valid addresses are stored in the cache and forms
TAG addresses from the TAG contents and the TAG index.
2.
The debugger uses the generated addresses to either access main memory, or to
read individual entries using the CP15 scan chain.
Step 1
This is done by reading the ICache and DCache TAG arrays using scan chain 15. The
debugger must do this for each entry set within the cache. The format of the data
returned is shown in Figure 8-5.
Figure 8-5 TAG address format
The TAG address is formed from the TAG contents and the TAG index used to
interrogate the TAG. This ensures that the data format returned is consistent regardless
of cache size.
Step 2
Reading individual entries using the CP15 scan chain can be useful where an entry has
been marked as dirty, because this indicates that there is an inconsistency between the
cache contents and main memory.
For the DCache, the debugger can execute system speed accesses that hit in the cache
and, therefore, return the cache contents. Writes to the DCache from the processor core
by this method result in the dirty bits being set for write-back regions, and main memory
is updated for write-through regions.
31
5 4 3 2 1 0
TAG address
Valid
Dirty1
Dirty2
Set1
Set0
Summary of Contents for ARM946E-S
Page 1: ...ARM DDI 0155A ARM946E S Technical Reference Manual ...
Page 6: ...vi Copyright ARM Limited 2000 All rights reserved ARM DDI 0155A 04 Limited Confidential ...
Page 54: ...Programmer s Model 2 34 Copyright ARM Limited 2000 All rights reserved ARM DDI 0155A ...
Page 70: ...Caches 3 16 Copyright ARM Limited 2000 All rights reserved ARM DDI 0155A ...
Page 78: ...Protection Unit 4 8 Copyright ARM Limited 2000 All rights reserved ARM DDI 0155A ...
Page 112: ...Coprocessor Interface 7 14 Copyright ARM Limited 2000 All rights reserved ARM DDI 0155A ...