Embedded System Debugger

In the development of embedded system, a suitable development tools must be provided which can obviously improve the efficiency of development to meet the requirement of hardware generalization and the development of complex embedded software. Among those tools, the debugger is of the most important. Currently, the study on technology about debugger is less in our country, meanwhile most of the debugging tools are provided by foreign companies. So it is meaningful to study the debugging technology deeply and develop the debugger of ourselves.This dissertation studies the concept of embedded system, the debugger and the theory of the debugger design and implementation, and then makes in-depth study in source-level debugger GDB. Because the design and implementation of the debugger is concerned with the special object file format and debug information format, this dissertation emphasizes on the ELF object file format and the stabs format for debug information, and also provides the data structure for operating the debug information. This dissertation also analyzes the implementation of the basic function of the debugger and the remote communication protocol.The architecture is for multi-target cross debuggers using the technique of assembling components. According to modules needed by installment, the cross debugger has been designed into several modules. The cross debugger has four components: user interface, debugging module, communication module and operating system supporting module. The monitor programs of the target are composed of executive module of debugging command, communication module and code control module.This design makes the cross debugger more extensible,retargetable and portable. The efforts of the work above are valuable for the development convenient debugger.