Z80 Emulator Debugging Standard

This proposal specifies a standard for emulators to integrate breakpoint and tracing debugging features. There are two parts to the standard, an extension to the Z80 instruction set, and a file format that provides similar functionality.

Overview

Previously, emulators required users to manually enter breakpoints, and often had no way to load breakpoints from an external file, preventing them being loaded from an IDE or assembler. This standard specifies ways for emulators to load breakpoints, provide tracing and logging services, and load label names.

Z80 Emulator Debugging Instruction Set

Overview

The Z80 Emulator Debugging Instruction Set (ZEDIS) specifies debugging events in the instruction stream. This allows emulators to avoid checking every instruction fetch against a debug event list. Instead, they simply issue the event when they see the instruction.

All instructions occupy unused instruction slots in the ED xx range. The unused instructions in this range function as 8-cycle NOPs, so software containing these instructions can be run on hardware without ill effect. Emulators MAY choose to count the ZEDIS instructions as 8-cycle NOPs for timing purposes. The following opcodes are USED in the Z80 instruction, and are NOT valid as debugging instructions: ED 40 - ED 76, ED 78 - ED 7E, ED A0 - ED A3, ED A8 - ED AB, ED B0 - ED B3, ED B8 - ED BB

Some instructions take more than one ED xx instruction. The additional arguments are also always of the form ED xx.

Groups

Software often has many different subsystems, so ZEDIS divides all debugging events into groups. There are 16 defined groups, 0-15. The purpose of each group is up to the user. For example, the user might use group 0 for events in a tile mapping system, and group 1 for events in sprites. Thus, the user can separately debug the two systems. The emulator SHOULD provide a UI means of disabling and enabling groups. Tracing groups and breakpoint groups are the same logical group.

Breakpoints

A breakpoint causes the emulator to pause emulation, and open a debugger interface. The emulator pauses and opens the interface after PC has passed the breakpoint instruction.

Tracing

Tracing provides a means for users to track the execution of software logic without single-stepping. Each tracing event adds an entry to a log, which MUST include the group number and any arguments (e.g. A = 3C), and MAY include the PC address of the event and the time the event happened.

Instruction Reference (ZEDIS)

Specifying Group Names

Per the file format specified below, the assembler may emit a file giving names to various groups. The exact syntax may be modified to suit each assembler. For example, changing # to ., or not requiring parentheses.

Macro	Description
#zedsmode(mode)	Changes the debugging mode. Valid modes are off, instr, and file.
#brkgroupname(x, name)	Defines that breakpoint group x should be given name.
#tracegroupname(x, name)	Defines that trace group x should be given name.

General Instructions

Instruction	Mnemonic	Description
ED 77	ZEDISOFF	Disables all ZEDIS instructions (except ED 7F)
ED 7F	ZEDISON	Enables all ZEDIS instructions
ED Cx	GRPOFF x	Disables all events in group x
ED Dx	GRPON x	Enables all events in group x

Breakpoint Instructions

Instruction	Mnemonic	Description
ED Fx	BREADK x	Breakpoint in group x

Tracing Instructions

Instruction	Mnemonic	Description
ED 0x	TRACE x	Trace event in group x with no arguments
ED 1x ED yy	TRACE x, y	Trace event in group x with event ID y, where yy is not a valid ED instruction.
ED 2x ED yy	TRACE x, reg	Trace event in group x, logging the value of reg, see table below.
DD ED 2x ED yy	TRACE x, ixreg	Trace event in group x, logging the value of ixreg, where ixreg is IX, IXL, IXH, or (IX).
FD ED 2x ED iyreg	TRACE x, IY	Trace event in group x, logging the value of iyreg, where iyreg is IY, IYL, IYH, or (IY).	ED 3x ED yy	TRACE x, (	ED 8x ED port	TRACEP x, (port)	Records the value in port without changing any state, see below

Imm8 Values

Imm8 values are encoded as follows:

• If Imm8 < 3F, then ED imm8

Register Codes

If IX or IY is selected, then only H, L, HL, or (HL) are valid and H becomes IXH or IYH &c. You know the drill with index registers.

Value	Register	Value	Register
<code>00	B	10	BC
01	C	11	DE
02	D	12	HL
03	E	13	AF
04	H	14	BC'
05	L	15	DE'
06	(HL)	16	HL'
07	A	17	AF'
08	B'	18	(BC)
09	C'	19	(DE)
0A	D'	1A	(BC')
0B	E'	1B	(DE')
0C	H'	1C	SP
0D	L'	1D	(SP)
0E	(HL')	1E	IR
0F	A'	1F	IFF

File Reference