While there are many tools available, some of our engineers have found success using the Lauterbach hardware and software suite. At our Lyon office, for example, we’ve harnessed several Lauterbach hardware components to connect seamlessly with the boards under test via interfaces like JTAG and ETM.
Complementing these hardware tools is the versatile Trace32 software, which empowers developers to execute software step by step, modify memory, tweak registers, and more. This level of control, akin to what we can achieve on microcontrollers, extends its utility beyond just the kernel, encompassing bootloaders, including the Secondary Program Loader (SPL).
Given that we work with a (very) wide range of hardware components, it’s essential that our toolkit can cope with this diversity. TRACE32 supports a wide array of processors, including the likes of the i.MX family. We have also used these tools to debug older processors, such as the Texas Instrument AM3703 processor, a sibling to the one found in the original BeagleBoards from a decade ago.
In a recent project, we revamped decade-old software to the latest U-Boot and kernel versions, and the JTAG probe integrated with Lauterbach proved invaluable for kernel debugging.