Debug Support

Ibex offers support for execution-based debug according to the RISC-V Debug Specification, version 0.13.

Note

Debug support in Ibex is only one of the components needed to build a System on Chip design with run-control debug support (think “the ability to attach GDB to a core over JTAG”). Additionally, a Debug Module and a Debug Transport Module, compliant with the RISC-V Debug Specification, are needed.

A supported open source implementation of these building blocks can be found in the RISC-V Debug Support for PULP Cores IP block.

The OpenTitan project can serve as an example of how to integrate the two components in a toplevel design.

Interface

Signal	Direction	Description
`debug_req_i`	input	Request to enter Debug Mode

debug_req_i is the “debug interrupt”, issued by the debug module when the core should enter Debug Mode.

Parameters

Parameter	Description
`DmHaltAddr`	Address to jump to when entering Debug Mode
`DmExceptionAddr`	Address to jump to when an exception occurs while in Debug Mode
`DbgTriggerEn`	Enable support for debug triggers
`DbgHwBreakNum`	Number of debug triggers

Core Debug Registers

Ibex implements four core debug registers, namely Debug Control and Status Register (dcsr), Debug PC Register (dpc), and two debug scratch registers. If the DbgTriggerEn parameter is set, debug trigger registers are available. See Trigger Select Register (tselect), Trigger Data Register 1 (tdata1) and Trigger Data Register 2 (tdata2) for details. All those registers are accessible from Debug Mode only. If software tries to access them without the core being in Debug Mode, an illegal instruction exception is triggered.