Debug Patterns for Efficient High-level SystemC Debugging

This paper proposes debug patterns combined with an intuitive flow to accelerate and simplify the debugging of SystemC designs. A debug pattern provides a formalized procedure to fix a defect (also colloquial bug) that is notified by an always recurring failure symptom. It helps to focus the user´s attention on a higher level of abstraction joined with minimal learning effort. The presented methodology is based upon a non-intrusive high-level SystemC debugging environment and the GNU debugger GDB. The usability of each pattern is demonstrated by practical examples.