Patent ID: 7496792

Claim:
A method for transmitting digital messages through output terminals of a monitoring circuit integrated to a microprocessor on execution of an instruction sequence by the microprocessor, each digital message being representative of characteristic data stored by the monitoring circuit on detection of a specific event from a plurality of specific events in the execution of the instruction sequence, the method comprising: comparing characteristic stored data of a specific event having an identifier with characteristic stored data of a last previously detected specific event having the same identifier to determine whether the specific event and the last previously detected specific event are identical; when it is determined that the specific event and the last previously detected specific event are identical, incrementing a repetition counter associated with said specific event; and when it is determined that the specific event and the last previously detected specific event are different; transmitting a digital message representative of the data characteristic of the specific event through at least one output terminal of the monitoring circuit; and, when content of the repetition counter associated with said specific event is different from zero, transmitting a digital message indicating a number of repetitions of the specific event, the number of repetitions is determined by a value of the repetition counter.