Patent ID: 7100152

Claim:
A system for analyzing a software program executing on a target system, the target system accessing a predetermined memory location and applying tags to the data bus of the target system, each of the tags having a tag type and tag data when an executable tag statement instrumented in the software program is executed, the system comprising: a tag detection circuit coupled to an address bus of the target system to detect access of the predetermined memory location, and generate in response thereto a detection signal indicative of emission of a tag by the target system; a trace filter coupled to the tag detection circuit and the data bus of the target system to capture one of the tags in response to receiving the detection signal, the trace filter having a decoder circuit to decode the tag type of the captured tag, and a comparator circuit coupled to the decoder circuit to receive the tag type and determine whether the captured tag is collectable according to filtering criteria, wherein the trace filter is adapted to implement a filter table for storing the filtering criteria, the filter table having a list of tag types and associated collection flags indicating that the respective tag type is collectable when set; and a collection device coupled to the trace filter and structured to collect the tag data of collectable tags.