Many of the specifics described here are not directly applicable to triggering and capturing on buses from other vendors. However, the concepts remain the same:

• Understand the bus.
• Draw a picture to help you locate the problem.
• Map a trigger strategy using a flowchart.
• Use events that could happen during subsequent clock edges for the flowchart levels.
• Use the events and actions that could happen within the same clock edge for the conditions, actions, and branches within a level.
• Use default storing to eliminate unneeded states.
• Use the memory depth of the analyzer and define the trigger position to capture where a problem might be.
• Cross-trigger from a simpler bus if you cannot find the problem on a complex bus.

Marrying fundamental bus operation with logic analyzer functionality extends visibility into the complex architecture of modern buses. These specific applications are easily extendible to other sophisticated modern buses, as most build on the same foundations. Understanding and planning can go a long way to unraveling the mystery of debugging modern bus systems.