Presentation
Staged Snapshots for Firmware-Hardware Collaborative Debug
DescriptionStaged snapshot-based collaborative debug across firmware and hardware environments bridges the gap between fast microcode simulators and slow, but fully observable, system simulations. Our approach captures a minimal architected state—registers and selected memory—from a firmware simulator at post‑IML and replays it into RTL system simulation, emulation, and back, using profile‑driven, protobuf‑encoded snapshots and testbench drivers to reconstruct non‑architected state. This decoupled, bidirectional flow enables HW and FW teams to debug the same failure in their native environments, without weeks of manual state reconstruction, reducing debug turn around time from weeks to hours, while shrinking snapshot size and cutting engineer effort by over an order of magnitude. Deployed on IBM Z17 for HW–FW interaction bugs, the framework offers better debug state quality, and the schema‑based design is generalizable to other firmware simulators and architectures, making it a practical for next‑generation systems.
Event Type
Engineering Presentation
TimeWednesday, July 291:45pm - 2:00pm PDT
LocationSeaside Ballroom A