Bus Transaction Monitor with JTAG

TODO

To support Altera Qsys AXI4 Monitor IP integration.

Tk GUI

Description

A CPU-to-FPGA bus transaction monitor, captures the CPU write/read address/data to/from memory-mapped registers that resides in the FPGA, and transmits the captured information to PC through JTAG download cable attached to the FPGA.

The detailed information about this low-level firmware debugger is published by the author on EDN.com as a Design Ideas article: Debug a microcontroller-to-FPGA interface from the FPGA side.

The original source code accompanying this article is set as the code base. Enhancements and additional features will be added.

Release 2.5 Added enhancements:
1. Capture address enlarged to 32bit.

Release 2.3 Added enhancements:
1. Xilinx FPGA support with ChipScope VIO. (In addition to Altera FPGA support with Virtual JTAG.)
2. AXI4-Lite Monitor as Xilinx Platform Studio IP.

Release 2.2 Added enhancements:
1. Multiple capture filter selection in the Tk GUI.
2. Read transaction capture.
3. Adjustable pre-trigger capture.
4. Capture content with transaction timing information.

Planned enhancements:
1. Parameterized RTL code for flexible implementation.
2. Comprehensive user guide for implementation and usage.