LauterbachSocGettingStarted

LauterbachSocGettingStarted

Introduction

Lauterbach is the producer of a versatile set of hardware debugging tools. Their toolset includes support for a variety of devices, including Altera Cyclone V Soc and Altera Arria V SoC products.

This page presents a short overview of the tools, and step-by-step instructions on how to get started using the Lauterbach tools with the Altera SoC Devices

Prerequisites

The following are needed in order to run the getting started guides in this document:

Host PC running either Windows or Linux. For this document, Windows 7 Professional 64bit and and CentOS 6.5 64bit were used, but other versions should also work.
Altera Cyclone V SoC Development Kit – rev D. Newer revisions should also work. Arria V SoC Development Kits should also work.
Recent Trace32 software and patches
Zip file with the associated examples and scripts: File:Altera lauterbach gs.zip
Lauterbach Debug Hardware. Various configurations can be used. For writing this document the following were used:
- LA-7699 PowerDebug II ETH
- LA-7693 PowerTrace II 2G
- LA-7992 PP-ARM ETM AF-2
- LA-7843 JTAG Cortex-A/R

Tools Overview

A typical Lauterbach setup is comprised of:

Trace 32 Software running on host PC
Lauterbach Debug Hardware
Target Board

Lauterbach-setup.png

Trace 32 Host Software

The Trace 32 Software runs on the Host OS (either Windows or Linux) and provides the User Interface. For the Lauterbach tools.

Mainly it allows users to perform debugging and tracing of the target device.

The tool is highly configurable, allowing all operations to be scripted. The scripting language is very powerful, allowing for example the User Interface to be updated at runtime, with custom buttons, windows and menus.

Usual and advanced debugger features are offered, such as:

Displaying memory
Disassembling code
Displaying currently executing C code
Viewing and modifying processor registers
RTOS awareness with large list of supported OS-es including Linux, QNX, uCOS-II etc
Multiprocessor debugging

Also tracing options and tracing data can easily be accessed.

Please refer to the tools documentation for full details.

Lauterbach Hardware Modules

There are a variety of debug hardware options, that allow different types of connectivity to the host PC (USB and Ethernet being the most common) and also offer different classes of services (with debugging and tracing being the most common).

The remaineder of this section will describe various hardware modules:

Debug Hardware,
Debug cable
Trace Unit,
Trace Pre-processor.

Debug Hardware

The most common Debug Hardware modules that can be used with Altera SoC devices are:

PowerDebug USB 3.0 – allowing debugging over USB only.
PowerDebug Ethernet – allowing debug over USB and 10/100 BaseT Ethernet.
PowerDebug II – allowing debug over USB and 10/100/1000 BaseT Ethernet.

JTAG Debug Cable

The JTAG Debug Cable plugs into the Debug Hardware, connects to the board through a JTAG connector, and allows debugging the target board. Different modules are needed for different types of targets.

The following JTAG debugger is available for the Altera SoC devices:

Debug Cable for JTAG Cortex-A/R (LA-7843)

Trace Module

The trace modules need to be attached to the Debugger Unit to add tracing functionality.

The most common trace modules that can be used with Altera SoC devices are:

Power Trace – Contains both debugger and tracing capabilities. 256 or 512MB of trace data.
PowerTrace II – Offers 1,2 or 4GB of tracing data. Must be controlled by PowerDebug II Debugger hardware

Trace Pre-processor

The Tracing Unit is generic, supporting various tracing interfaces. A pre-processor is needed for each tracing interface.

The Altera SoC devices require the usage of the following ETM pre-processor:

Preprocessor for ARM-ETM Autofocus II (LA-7992)

Refer to the following page for details on which configurations are available for the Altera SoC products: http://www.lauterbach.com/frames.html?pro/pro_cyclonevsoc.php?chip=CYCLONEVSOC