Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Michael Chen

Gregory Hogdal

James A Stulz

Mark Sievert Larsen

A technique to implement software debugging capability using breakpoints includes creating breakpoints, storing them in a watchlist, and paging out a virtual address (VA) to physical address (PA) page entry in a translation look-aside buffer (TLB). When software under test is run at full speed, memory is accessed via the TLB VA to PA page translations. When a translation is missing, an exception is generated. Handling the exception includes determining if the page missing from the TLB matches a breakpoint address in the watchlist. The address and operation type are compared to the watchlist. If the operation matches the address and not the specified data, then the software under test is single stepped, the TLB page is removed and the software under test continues to execute. If the breakpoint and data type matches, then a debugger is notified and debugger action to service the breakpoint occurs.

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Michael Chen