We have all debugged SOC and IP level issues using signal level waveforms. It’s a tedious and laborious process. Are there any ways that can make design debug easier? Wouldn’t it be great if I could look at fully decoded packets and transactions instead of signal toggles? In this series of posts, we will try to come up with the best way to look at some typical interfaces in order to reduce debug effort and increase productivity.
AXI3
AXI3 is a system bus that offers a high speed inter-connect between subsystems of an SOC. Some of the features include:
- Separate Address, Control and Data Phases
- Burst Transactions
- Multiple outstanding addresses
- Out of order completion


So how can you get AXI3 transactions from signal level details? The PDA tool from Arrow Devices can help you. You can also look at a short 3 minute video. (No earphones? No worries! It has subtitles!)
When used along with a traditional waveform viewer, the PDA tool provides excellent debug visibility and traceability; from signal level to transaction level.
Author: Aditya Mittal