FPGA based CPU instrumentation for hard real-time embedded system testing

Abstract

The addition of system instrumentation features have been sporadically incorporated into processor architectures over the last several decades. Particular emphasis areas of high performance, embedded and real-time computing are reviewed in terms of software and hardware measurements and approaches representing active research directions. A novel approach is described that may be readily used with recent advances in Field Programmable Gate Array technology using embedded processors. The approach and preliminary results are described using a Xilinx device with a MicroBlaze TM 32 bit architecture. Some system level problems are outlined and examined.