A trace-capable instruction cache for cost efficient real-time program trace compression in SoC

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This paper presents a novel approach to make the on-chip instruction cache of a SoC to function simultaneously as a regular instruction cache and a real time program trace compressor. This goal is accomplished by exploiting the dictionary feature of the instruction cache with a small support circuit attached to the side of the cache. The trace compression works in both the bypass mode and the online mode. Compared with related work, this work has the advantage of utilizing the existing instruction cache, which is indispensable in modern SoCs, and thus saves significant amount of hardware resource. The RTL implementation of a 4KB trace-capable instruction cache, a 4KB data cache and an academic ARM7 processor core has been accomplished. The experiments show that the cache achieves average compression ratio of 90% with a very small hardware overhead of 3652 gates. In addition, the trace support circuit does not impact the global critical path. Therefore, the proposed approach is highly feasible on-chip debugging/monitoring solution for SoCs, even for cost sensitive ones such as consumer electronics.