RE: [oc] Debug Interface

[Jeffrey Hanoch <jeff@lowrance.com>]

Hi Igor,

I did find and download the info on your DebugInterface.  This looks like it
is what we would need for debugging applications.  However, I couldn't find
any info on what happens between the debug interface and the person writing
the code.  If I may, here are a couple of questions:

Are there any existing JTAG debuggers that will work with this interface?
What kind of PC or Unix debug software is available to take advantage of the
JTAG interface or is this software going to have to be written also?

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Igor Mohor (uni-mb) [mailto:igor.mohor@uni-mb.si]
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 5:29 AM
To: cores@opencores.org
Subject: RE: [oc] legality of cores?!


Hi, Jeff.

I'm developing JTAG debug interface. First version is already avaliable at
http://www.opencores.org/cores/DebugInterface/
It will be changed a bit but you can get an impression. Let me hear your
comments.

Regards,
	Igor

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-cores@opencores.org [mailto:owner-cores@opencores.org]On
> Behalf Of Jeffrey Hanoch
> Sent: 31. maj 2001 22:27
> To: cores@opencores.org
> Subject: RE: [oc] legality of cores?!
>
>
> Hello,
>
> Jim, you ask a good question.  However, I don't believe it is
> illegal to use
> information freely available in order to reverse engineer a processor.  As
> long as no inside private information from ARM is used, it should
> be legal.
> AMD obviously makes a clone of the Intel processors and gets away with it.
> But it should be checked out as I am not a Lawyer (thank God).
>
> I would be interested in possibly working on a project like this.  I am an
> ASIC designer at a consumer electronics company who uses ARM
> cores.  I have
> long thought about doing my own "ARM" core, but one thing that has always
> stopped me (besides time) has been figuring out how ARM did the JTAG debug
> interface.  Without this feature, it makes development extremely
> difficult.
> This feature is necessary in order to take advantage of all the
> third party
> development tools already on the market.  There are very few people who
> would have the resources to throw at creating completely new development
> tools.  Things like debuggers and compilers are not a trivial undertaking.
>
> I have very limited experience with verilog.  I am a VHDL guy,
> but have vast
> experience with Design Compiler, FPGA development, and
> Modeltech's Modelsim
> tools.
>
> Jeff
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Poder [mailto:Jim.Poder@wireless-networks.com]
> Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2001 1:01 PM
> To: cores@opencores.org
> Subject: [oc] legality of cores?!
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I've read 2 announcements in the past week or so regarding Arm
> compatible cores, and was wondering if anyone has any idea as to the
> legality of these.  I remember reading a couple of months ago about a
> group of students from Malardalen University (Vasteras, Sweden) who
> wrote an Arm7 compatible core called BlackARM, but could not release it
> publicly due to fear of getting sued by Arm, Inc.  Arm, the company,
> makes money solely by licensing their IP (cores), and I would think that
> they might not appreciate people writing "clones", but I'm not sure if
> it is against any laws.  I'm pretty sure that there aren't any lawyers
> in this group (thank God!) but has anyone thought about these types of
> issues?  I don't want to ruin anyone's fun by dragging lawyers into the
> mix, but I would hate to see anyone spend a lot of time developing a
> core only to get run over by Arm's legal team.
>
>
> jim
>