[SOLVED] Trace Interface Type PC Sampling gone?

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse this site, you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy.

  • [SOLVED] Trace Interface Type PC Sampling gone?

    Some time ago, I installed Embedded Studio to evaluate it, but due to a project I didn't get very far. I now installed the newest version to try again, but it seems the most interesting feature (for me) is gone: setting the trace interface type (arm_target_trace_interface_type) to PC sampling. (I'm currently working with a Raspberry Pico/RP2040, which is a Cortex-M0+ without an MTB, so PC sampling is pretty much the only option for me to collect runtime performance information, despite owning a J-Trace Pro..)

    I didn't find anything in the Release Notes, is this omission by accident or is there some reason behind it? It would be very sad, that was really a unique feature. Unless the reason is that the feature will be moved to Ozone, of course ;)

  • Hello,

    Thank you for your inquiry.
    Yes PC sampling was removed as it was rarely used and in some cases could case issues on certain architectures.
    It may be reintroduced in future but there is currently no fixed time frame for this.

    May I suggest to use SystemView instead?
    segger.com/products/development-tools/systemview/

    This can be used for performance analysis on any of the supported architectures by J-Link and does not require any specifc hardware support as the debug interface SWD/JTAG itself is used for data capture.

    Best regards,
    Nino
    Please read the forum rules before posting.

    Keep in mind, this is *not* a support forum.
    Our engineers will try to answer your questions between their projects if possible but this can be delayed by longer periods of time.
    Should you be entitled to support you can contact us via our support system: segger.com/ticket/
    Or you can contact us via e-mail.

  • Hello Nino,

    thank you for your response. That is very sad news indeed, that really was the most exciting feature compared to your competitors' IDEs. Definitely count my vote for reintroduction (and a double vote for the same feature in Ozone). I luckily still had the old version installed and was playing around with this feature the past few days and was really loving it, but looks like I'll have to live without.

    The huge advantage compared to SystemView is that it needs no code changes at all. Getting a similar overview of where my code spends most of its time (down to the function level!) would be so invasive using SystemView it's not even funny. And like I said, "real" tracing is not possible on this chip, and even then, I often have to deal with designs where the MCU tracing pins weren't routed to a connector, so most of the time, my shiny expensive J-Trace is pretty much just as useful as a simple "normal" J-Link. With this, that could have changed... Come to think of it, hell, I would even pay extra to have this in Ozone ;)

    TL;DR: Please put this feature somewhere on your surely endless To-Do list where your developers will find it :)

    Thanks & Best regards,
    habermudo

    P.S. Looks like I'm not the only one who would like this: [1] [2] [3] ;)