eXDI Hardware-Assisted Debugging
Platform Builder enables you to use eXDI hardware-assisted debugging to control the execution of a target device, and to examine and modify the state of the device. Third-party vendors provide the required hardware and software, which includes, at a minimum, a driver and either a probe or an emulator. The third-party vendor may also provide a target device, or the target and probe may be one piece of hardware and a software plug-in that adds hardware-specific functionality to the debugger. Platform Builder provides an IDE interface to the third-party components.
To use eXDI hardware-assisted debugging, you must install the third-party eXDI driver on a development workstation running Platform Builder, and connect a probe or emulator between the development workstation and the target device. The driver multiplexes all communication between the probe or emulator and all clients, including Platform Builder and debugger plug-ins. The same driver can sometimes support multiple CPUs, even those from different CPU families.
The eXDI driver works solely with the debug support available on the hardware, and does not rely on an operating system (OS) for this support. For this reason, the hardware debugger can work even if the OS is not fully functional, or even if there is no OS on the target device. The hardware debugger can debug initialization phases such as hardware setup, boot loading, and OAL initialization, as well as OAL routines and the kernel itself. It can also be used to debug other kinds of code, although the kernel debugger may be more appropriate and is recommended.
**Note **Although the hardware debugger does not rely on an OS, some hardware-assisted debugging features are relevant or available only when the Windows CE kernel is running.
See Also
Last updated on Friday, October 08, 2004
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