Patent ID: 8042007

Claim:
Within an integrated circuit, a method of capturing trace data comprising: storing trace data from a circuit as entries within memory slots of a trace buffer; wherein the storing of trace data is independent of occurrence of trigger events; responsive to detecting a first trigger event, setting a trigger bit and a time marker bit within a first trace data entry stored within a first current memory slot of the trace buffer, wherein the trigger bit and the time marker bit are correlated with the first trigger event, determining a capture region within the trace buffer comprising the first trace data entry and having a range defined by a lower bound memory slot comprising an entry occurring prior to the first trace data entry and an upper bound memory slot to store an entry subsequent to the first trace data entry, wherein each memory slot of the capture region is associated with the first trigger event, and storing a first time marker correlated with the time marker bit of the first trace data entry within a time marker memory; and outputting content of the capture region from the trace buffer and outputting from the time marker memory each time marker correlated with a time marker bit within the capture region to a memory device that is independent of the trace buffer, wherein the outputting of each time marker to the memory device bypasses storage of the time marker in the trace buffer.