Some requirements for architectural support of software debugging

Abstract

Architectural support of high-level, symbolic debugging is described at three levels of abstraction: the user's view of desired debugging functionality, the debugger implementor's view of architectural requirements that support the functionality, and the computer architect's view of architectural features or attributes that implement the requirements. References are made where possible to computing systems that meet the requirements. The paper is written from the viewpoint of debugger implementors, and is addressed primarily to computer architects.