MSP430FR4133: Support for developing third party debugger

Samuel Pfarrer

Part Number: MSP430FR4133
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: MSPDS

Hello,

we are hoping to develop a lightweight development environment for select MSP430 controllers with debug support. Information about flashing the controller over JTAG or SBW interfacing was easy to find (slau320). We are however struggling to find any detailed information about the EEM implementations used for debugging support. The MSP debug stack is openly available and there is a lot of information to be found in the code comments, howevere there appears to be no official documentation from TI to be found.

It would be very interesting to read how breakpoint are configured or how the cycle counter is to be read. Is the lack of information by design or have I not been looking in the right places?

I would appreciate any information in this regard.

Sam

over 2 years ago

0 Luke Ledbetter over 2 years ago

TI__Mastermind 26870 points

Hi Sam,

As you have noticed most of the information on the debug stack is actually found in the MSP Debug Stack Developers Package. There is a small MSPDebugStack Developer's Guide but for implementation I do recommend looking at the application examples. You can find the API list in

MSP430_DLL_Developer_Package_Rev_x_xx_x_x/Doc/html/index.html

Regards,

Luke

0 Samuel Pfarrer over 2 years ago in reply to Luke Ledbetter

Prodigy 10 points

Hi Luke,

thanks for the information. I have gone through the MSPDS package and the way I understand it, the MSPDS is what I need to implement an IDE on the Win/Linux side and connect to an FET over USB. Correct?

We would also lke to understand how the debug mechanism works at the lowest level. For e.g. one can read CPU registers over JTAG, these are not mapped in memory, so how does the JTAG read them? What address can the cycle counter be read over JTAG? Where are the registers to configure breakpoints located? The TI documentation for the EEM does not mention any of these details. Are these available publicly?

Regards,

Sam

0 Samuel Pfarrer over 2 years ago in reply to Samuel Pfarrer

Prodigy 10 points

Hi Luke,

I have read a bit more through slau320. There is an example of how the PC is set. Is something similar used to read the PC and other registers? I am also struggling to find a reliable list of opcodes for the MSP430. Are there any links for that?

Regards,

Sam

0 David Schultz over 2 years ago

Guru 25265 points

mspdebug is a third party debugger with source code available. Have you looked at that?

0 Luke Ledbetter over 2 years ago in reply to Samuel Pfarrer

TI__Mastermind 26870 points

Hi Sam,

The op codes can be found in the older user's guide see MSP430F2xx user's guide, Section 3.4 Instruction Set.

Regards,

Luke

0 Samuel Pfarrer over 2 years ago in reply to David Schultz

Prodigy 10 points

Hello David,

it too looks like a project that utilises the MSPDS. My only open question now is if documentation for the low level working of the EEM is available.

0 Samuel Pfarrer over 2 years ago in reply to Luke Ledbetter

Prodigy 10 points

Hello Luke,

thanks for the link. It is strange that these few pages are not part of every family's reference manual or that there is no dedicated document about this. At least all reference manuals can be updated to mention that further details can be found in the said document.

I have read a bit more of the source code in the MSPDS OS Package and that looks like what will help me most to understand the low level workings. I have encountered a few JTAG commands there though which are not documented in slau320. Is there any other document which covers these? That information will help me resolve this issue.

Regards,

Sam

+1 Luke Ledbetter over 2 years ago in reply to Samuel Pfarrer

TI__Mastermind 26870 points

Hi Sam,

Do you know which JTAG commands specifically that aren't included in the "MSP430 Programming with JTAG Interface" that you can see in the MSP Debug stack?

I believe these are all the documents we have on this subject so the comments in the code should supplement for further knowledge.

Regards,

Luke

0 Samuel Pfarrer over 2 years ago in reply to Luke Ledbetter

Prodigy 10 points

Hi Luke,

I am afraid that we will have to reconsider our choice of the MSP430 family due to the lack of documentation.

Regards,

Sam

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MSP430FR4133: Support for developing third party debugger