RISC-V Foundation Announces Ratification of the Processor Trace Specification

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elektormagazine.com, Mar. 11, 2020 – 

Last Monday the RISC-V Foundation announced the ratification of the processor trace specification. The new standard trace encoder algorithm allows engineers and developers to see exactly what instructions a core is executing, step by step. The processor trace specification will be enormously helpful to aid debugging by exposing accurate and detailed traces of activity, with filtering capabilities to isolate the trace portions that matter.

Designing and developing software can take months, and in some cases, longer depending on the size and complexity of the workload. General-purpose and legacy ISAs are not designed to accommodate the growing computing demands, pushing the industry to leverage RISC-V and its open collaboration model. Developers and engineers welcoming RISC-V and its open standard collaboration approach will now be able to capitalize on the processor trace specification and minimize time spent debugging and integrating tools and standard extensions.

RISC-V member companies Andes Tech, Blue Spec, Codasip, Esperanto, ETH Zurich, Seagate, SiFive, Syntacore, UltraSoC, Vedanta Micro, Western Digital, and others contributed to the ratification of the processor trace specification. The RISC-V Foundation's Processor Trace Task Group is in the process of enhancing the trace ecosystem and will propose plans to the newly formed Trace and Debug Steering committee for its consideration and guidance.

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