1 Intel(R) Trace Hub (TH)
2 =======================
7 Intel(R) Trace Hub (TH) is a set of hardware blocks that produce,
8 switch and output trace data from multiple hardware and software
9 sources over several types of trace output ports encoded in System
10 Trace Protocol (MIPI STPv2) and is intended to perform full system
11 debugging. For more information on the hardware, see Intel(R) Trace
12 Hub developer's manual [1].
14 It consists of trace sources, trace destinations (outputs) and a
15 switch (Global Trace Hub, GTH). These devices are placed on a bus of
16 their own ("intel_th"), where they can be discovered and configured
19 Currently, the following Intel TH subdevices (blocks) are supported:
20 - Software Trace Hub (STH), trace source, which is a System Trace
22 - Memory Storage Unit (MSU), trace output, which allows storing
23 trace hub output in system memory,
24 - Parallel Trace Interface output (PTI), trace output to an external
25 debug host via a PTI port,
26 - Global Trace Hub (GTH), which is a switch and a central component
27 of Intel(R) Trace Hub architecture.
29 Common attributes for output devices are described in
30 Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-intel_th-output-devices, the most
31 notable of them is "active", which enables or disables trace output
32 into that particular output device.
34 GTH allows directing different STP masters into different output ports
35 via its "masters" attribute group. More detailed GTH interface
36 description is at Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-intel_th-devices-gth.
38 STH registers an stm class device, through which it provides interface
39 to userspace and kernelspace software trace sources. See
40 Documentation/tracing/stm.txt for more information on that.
42 MSU can be configured to collect trace data into a system memory
43 buffer, which can later on be read from its device nodes via read() or
46 On the whole, Intel(R) Trace Hub does not require any special
47 userspace software to function; everything can be configured, started
48 and collected via sysfs attributes, and device nodes.
50 [1] https://software.intel.com/sites/default/files/managed/d3/3c/intel-th-developer-manual.pdf
55 For each Intel TH device in the system a bus of its own is
56 created and assigned an id number that reflects the order in which TH
57 devices were emumerated. All TH subdevices (devices on intel_th bus)
58 begin with this id: 0-gth, 0-msc0, 0-msc1, 0-pti, 0-sth, which is
59 followed by device's name and an optional index.
61 Output devices also get a device node in /dev/intel_thN, where N is
62 the Intel TH device id. For example, MSU's memory buffers, when
63 allocated, are accessible via /dev/intel_th0/msc{0,1}.
68 # figure out which GTH port is the first memory controller:
70 $ cat /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/port
73 # looks like it's port 0, configure master 33 to send data to port 0:
75 $ echo 0 > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-gth/masters/33
77 # allocate a 2-windowed multiblock buffer on the first memory
78 # controller, each with 64 pages:
80 $ echo multi > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/mode
81 $ echo 64,64 > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/nr_pages
83 # enable wrapping for this controller, too:
85 $ echo 1 > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/wrap
87 # and enable tracing into this port:
89 $ echo 1 > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/active
91 # .. send data to master 33, see stm.txt for more details ..
92 # .. wait for traces to pile up ..
93 # .. and stop the trace:
95 $ echo 0 > /sys/bus/intel_th/devices/0-msc0/active
97 # and now you can collect the trace from the device node:
99 $ cat /dev/intel_th0/msc0 > my_stp_trace
104 It is possible to configure the Trace Hub and control its trace
105 capture from a remote debug host, which should be connected via one of
106 the hardware debugging interfaces, which will then be used to both
107 control Intel Trace Hub and transfer its trace data to the debug host.
109 The driver needs to be told that such an arrangement is taking place
110 so that it does not touch any capture/port configuration and avoids
111 conflicting with the debug host's configuration accesses. The only
112 activity that the driver will perform in this mode is collecting
113 software traces to the Software Trace Hub (an stm class device). The
114 user is still responsible for setting up adequate master/channel
115 mappings that the decoder on the receiving end would recognize.
117 In order to enable the host mode, set the 'host_mode' parameter of the
118 'intel_th' kernel module to 'y'. None of the virtual output devices
119 will show up on the intel_th bus. Also, trace configuration and
120 capture controlling attribute groups of the 'gth' device will not be
121 exposed. The 'sth' device will operate as usual.