Specifications

Embedded System Tools Guide (EDK 6.2i) www.xilinx.com 33

UG111 (v1.4) January 30, 2004 1-800-255-7778

Some Useful Tools

Debugging Using Hardware: software intrusive

Create your application executable using the compiler. For example

mb-gcc -g -xl-mode-xmdstub file1.c file2.c

This command creates the Microprocessor executable a.out, linked with the C runtime

library crt1.o and starting at physical address 0x400, and with debugging information that

can be read by mb-gdb (or powerpc-eabi-gdb if compilation was done for PowerPC).

If you want to debug your code using a board, you must specify the DEFAULT_INIT

parameter for that processor to XMDSTUB in MSS file. This creates a Data2MEM script

(run_download) file that initializes the Local Memory (LM) with the xmdstub executable.

Next, load the bitstream representing your design onto your FPGA. Refer to Chapter 13,

“Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger (XMD),” and Chapter 7, “Library Generator,” for more

information.

Start the xmd server in a new window with the following command:

xmd

Connect to use stub target GDB. Please see Chapter 13, “Xilinx Microprocessor Debugger

(XMD),” for more information.

Load the program in mb-gdb using the command:

mb-gdb a.out

Click on the “Run” icon and in the mb-gdb Target Selection dialog, choose

- Target: Remote/TCP

- Hostname: localhost

- Port: 1234

Now, mb-gdb’s Insight GUI can be used to debug the program.

Debugging Using A Simulator: non-intrusive

If you want to debug your code using a simulator, compile programs using the following

command:

mb-gcc -g file1.c file2.c

This command creates the MicroBlaze executable file, a.out, with debugging

information that can be accessed by mb-gdb. For PowerPC, the compiler used is

powerpc-eabi-gcc.

Xilinx EDK provides two ways to debug programs in simulation.

1. Cycle-accurate simulator in XMD:

Start xmd server in a new window with the following command:

xmd

Connect using sim target. Please see the XMD documentation for more information.

Loading and debugging the program in mb-gdb is done the same way as for xmd in

hardware mode described above.

This is the preferred mechanism to debug user programs in simulation

2. Simple ISA simulator in mb-gdb: