[SOLVED] Breakpointe step performance

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  • [SOLVED] Breakpointe step performance

    Hi Together,
    i'm writing a small application for a university project where i jump with breakpoints through my code.


    I noticed that when I set a breakpoint and then put the cpu back into run mode it takes a long time.


    Relative to that I am much faster with single instruction step.


    The blocks I run through are basic blocks with ~10 instruction.



    breakpoint step ~ 4ms
    single instruction step ~100µs



    My expectation was that I could iterate through the code much faster with breakpoints.


    I use a JLINK EDU and use the JLINK API to communicate directly with the JLINK.
    As hardware I use a STM31F103 controller.



    Are breakpoints for small code segments really more inefficient than single instructions or is it my setting?


    Best regards
  • Hello,

    Actually, when single stepping, J-Link may simulate simple instructions like
    MOV Rd, #Imm
    MOV Rd, Rs
    ADDS Rd, #Imm
    ADDS Rd, Rs
    [...]

    Therefore, single stepping can be quite fast because some HW operations are skipped and simulated and at some point their result is written to the HW once on-block.
    Also, your performance with BPs depend on the debug interface speed you have selected.


    BR
    Alex
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