GDB patch for debugging Hitachi advanced rom monitor

[John M. Mills]

Jack-

On Wed, 22 Mar 2000, Jack wrote:
> > 3) Do you want to use gdb with a vendor's proprietary debugger/monitor
> > protocol (Hitachi AMON protocol)? In this case you would have to modify
> > gdb, but I don't know if such a patch existsfor AMON. FWIW, I doubt such a
> > patch exists and would be desireable in general.
>     I think this is easier than burning a rom.
>     Do you know any one is doing this??

Since the monitor allows me to debug and patch my code, I do want it in
Flash while the application is temporarily built so as to run from my
development board's RAM space. If it's convenient to install your monitor
in ROM, that's no problem -- you just have to set the processor's start-up
vector to go to your ROM monitor's entry point. I have FLASH space for
this purpose on my Hitachi "Engineering Development Kit" ('EDK') board.

In my case, the procedure the same as putting any other code into the
FLASH memory - I use a Hitachi utility which runs in MS Windows, but
whatever way you write to FLASH should work. Here's what I have to do,
roughly:

1) Obtain or create an S-Record copy of the program to install (in this
   case, a debugging monitor).

2) Move internal jumpers which re-route serial traffic to a built-in FLASH
   programming interface.

3) Using the Win utility, set the chip's boot mode for programming.

4) Still using the utility, download the monitor (or application).

5) Still using the utility, reset the chip's boot mode for execution,
   then exit the utility.

6) Power-down the board, rearrange the jumpers, and boot the board again.

Now I use the monitor to download and debug my applications which are
linked to load into RAM, but are segmented to keep separate those objects
destined for "real" RAM in a release version.

I hope I addressed your question.

Regards,

   John Mills
   Sr. Software Engineer
   TGA Technologies, Inc.
   100 Pinnacle Way, Suite 140
   Norcross, GA 30071-3633
   e-mail: jmills at tga.com
   Phone: 770-441-2100 ext.124 (voice)
          770-449-7740 (FAX)