RT600 hifi dsp debug downloading is toooooo slow

[zhang2018tz]

Developing environment: evkmimxrt685, McuXpresso11.1.1, XtensaXplorer 8.0.10.3, EVK onboard debugger is programmed to JLINK (as starting up guide doc says), Xtensa OCD Daemon 14.01 is used.

Just open the mu_interrupt demo program in both MCU side and DSP side. Build and download, on my win7 computer, DSP downloading (in XtensaXplorer) takes 45 seconds. Single line stepping is also very slow. I probled the SWD debugging port signals, it's just sending 4 bytes every 1ms. This means 95% of the time, the SWD port is not doing anything. Then I tired on a win10 computer, it gets quicker. Probing the SWD lines again, I can see it's sending 4 bytes every 0.3ms. Still 70% of the time, SWD is not sending anything.

How to speed up the SWD port? Can Xtensa OCD Daemon be configured in some way to accelarate?

Downloading a DSP program with 10~40 seconds, and each single line stepping takes 2~5 seconds --- nobody has the time to debug it.

Really appriciate if someone could help!

[victorjimenez]

Hello, 

I made some tests and I was unable to reproduce the behavior that you mentioned. Downloading and debugging the code on Xtensa doesn't take 45 seconds, also the behavior on the Single-line stepping is normal. My test environment was the following: 

• MCUXpresso IDE: 11.1.1
• SDK: 2.7.0
• Xtensa: 8.0.10.3
• Xtensa OCD Daemon: 14.0.1
• JLink: 6.72a

Regards, 

Victor 

[zhang2018tz]

My on board debugger was programmed to Jlink by LPCScrypt_2.1.1_15.exe, as instructed by the "getting start" doc. After running OCD, it shows: Jlink Lib V.66204

Where does your Jlink 6.72a come from? Maybe I should find Jlink 6.72a? 

[victorjimenez]

Hello, 

Please download and install the latest version available of the JLink software from the following link: https://www.segger.com/downloads/jlink/#J-LinkSoftwareAndDocumentationPack. 

After installing the newest version, when you run the OCD you will see something like the following: 

Please let me know your results once you try this. 

Regards, 

Victor 

[zhang2018tz]

Hello Victor, thanks for your help. I downloaded the latest Jlink software, and now I have JLINK lib V.67202 activated. But this doesn't help me. I am still having 40 seconds downloading mu-interrupt demo on win7, and 11 seconds downloading mu-interrupt demo on win10.

stepping signle line over is still slow. (1~5 srconds). 

[victorjimenez]

Hello, 

I'm still unable to reproduce this behavior on my end. What version of the SDK are you using? The only difference between your test environment and mine is that I'm running under Windows10, do you have the possibility to test this on a PC running Windows10? 

Regards, 

Victor 

[zhang2018tz]

Yes, I did try in win10. In my previous post, I said: it is 11 seconds downloading mu-interrupt demo on win10. I still believe 11 seconds is too long. Because mu-interrupt is just a very small program. And the stepping line debugging is also too slow in win10. 

How many seconds do you need on your win10? (the mu-interrupt example)

[victorjimenez]

Hello Zhang, 

On my Windows10 pc, it takes also around 11 seconds. Keep in mind that when you launch the debug session you are also downloading the binary to the core. On my end, the stepping line debugging speed is normal, the same as in MCUXpresso IDE. 

Did you change anything to the debug configurations? Could you please attach some video that shows the behavior when using the stepping line during the debug session? 

Regards, 

Victor 

[zhang2018tz]

Here is the video (sorry for my late reply):

In the video, I was stepping over some lines of writing data to memory, and some lines of doing GPIO with 1us delay. Let's just look at stepping over the line of "*PtrAAA++=10;" , it is almost 1second.

I know, I have the disassembly window open, and the expression watch open. But still, I feel it is way too much slower than what I expect.

If you have used Keil (uVision), you know what a proper stepping over speed is.

And, again, I've used logic analyzer to probe the SWD debugging port lines, for 70% of the total time, SWD has NO data. I would say, the debugging port is only working at 1/3 of the max transfering speed.

I hope this could be optimized. 

[victorjimenez]

Hello Zhang, 

Thanks for attaching the video. The speed that you are seeing is normal for the on-board debugger, keep in mind that the onboard debuggers that come with our EVK are not as powerful as an external stand-alone debugger. If you want to increase the download and stepping speed I highly recommend you to get an external Jlink debugger. 

Regards, 

Victor