SOFTWARE ANALYSIS SYSTEM HAVING AN APPARATUS FOR SELECTIVELY COLLECTING ANALYSIS DATA FROM A TARGET SYSTEM EXECUTING SOFTWARE INSTRUMENTED WITH TAG STATEMENTS AND METHOD FOR USE THEREOF

摘要

A software analysis system having a filter for selectively collecting tagsgenerated by a target system during execution of a software program underanalysis inaccordance to a programmable filtering criteria. The system includes a decoderfordecoding the tag type of the tags captured from the data bus of the targetsystem, and acomparator for comparing the tag types to the programmable filtering criteriatodetermine whether the tag should be collected. The programmable filteringcriteriamay be programmed by collecting filter tags from the target system, ordirectlyprogrammed by a software developer using a filtering user interface. Theprogrammable filtering criteria is implemented by a filter table that stores aflagassociated with each tag type. The flag is indicative of whether tag data of arespective tag type should be collected. Tag data of the tag types meeting theprogrammable filtering criteria have timestamp information appended to the tagdataand are collected in a tag buffer.