Patent ID: 7921333

Claim:
An analyzer for capturing activity on a transmission medium, comprising: a data input port configured to receive the activity from the transmission medium, wherein the data input port includes signal conversion logic configured to convert a signal type used by the transmission medium to a signal type used by the analyzer and wherein the signal conversion logic is further configured to index at least a portion of the transmission medium activity; a control port for controlling modes of operation of the analyzer and for accepting user-defined patterns of activity for triggering; and replay logic configured to receive the transmission medium activity from the data input port, receive stored activity from a trace buffer, and select one or the other of the transmission medium activity and the stored activity to output to trigger logic, but not both, wherein the trigger logic includes a trigger sequencer that uses a state machine architecture configured to change states and each level of the state machine can enable any or all of the other levels upon exiting the level; and trace buffer control logic configured to cause activity received by said replay logic to be read from or written to said trace buffer, wherein said trace buffer is configured to receive at least a portion of the transmission medium activity from said replay logic, store the at least a portion of transmission medium activity, send stored activity to said replay logic, and send stored activity to a data output port for processing or display, and wherein said trigger logic is configured to compare a pattern of activity received by the replay logic with a first user-defined pattern of activity and to indicate when the comparison results in a match.