3
MVME51005E Single Board Computer Installation and Use (6806800A38B)
17
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PPCBug Firmware
Introduction
The PPCBug firmware is the layer of software just above the hardware. The firmware provides
the proper initialization for the devices on the MVME5100 upon powerup or reset.
This chapter describes the basics of the PPCBug and its architecture. It also describes the
monitor (interactive command portion of the firmware), and provides information on using the
PPCBug debugger and the special commands. A complete list of PPCBug commands is also
provided.
For full user information about PPCBug, refer to the
PPCBug Firmware Package User’s Manual
and the
PPCBug Diagnostics Manual, listed in
Appendix D, Related Documentation
.
PPCBug Overview
The PPCBug debugger firmware is a powerful evaluation and debugging tool for systems built
around Motorola microprocessor. Facilities are available for loading and executing user
programs under complete operator control for system evaluation. The PPCBug provides a high
degree of functionality, user friendliness, portability and ease of maintenance.
The PPCBug also achieves its portability because it was written entirely in the C programming
language, except where necessary to use assembler functions.
PPCBug includes commands for:
❏
Display and modification of memory
❏
Breakpoint and tracing capabilities
❏
A powerful assembler and disassembler useful for patching programs
❏
A self-test at powerup feature which verifies the integrity of the system
PPCBug consists of three parts:
❏
A command-driven, user-interactive software debugger, described in the
PPCBug
Firmware Package User’s Manual, listed in
Appendix D, Related Documentation
(hereafter referred to as “debugger” or “PPCBug”).
❏
A command-driven diagnostics package for the MVME5100 hardware (hereafter
referred to as “diagnostics”). The diagnostics package is described in the
PPCBug
Diagnostics Manual, listed in
Appendix D, Related Documentation
.
❏
A user interface or debug/diagnostics monitor that accepts commands from the
system console terminal.
When using PPCBug, you operate out of either the
debugger directory
or the
diagnostic
directory.