Abstract: In accordance with embodiments disclosed herein, there is provided systems and methods for providing status of a processing device with a periodic synchronization point in an instruction tracing system. For example, the method may include generating a boundary packet based on a unique byte pattern in a packet log. The boundary packet provides a starting point for packet decode. The method may also include generating a plurality of state packets based on status information of the processor. The plurality of state packets follows the boundary packet when outputted into the packet log.

Abstract: A processing device implementing minimizing bandwidth to track return targets by an instruction tracing system is disclosed. A processing device of the disclosure an instruction fetch unit comprising a return stack buffer (RSB) to predict a target address of a return (RET) instruction corresponding to a call (CALL) instruction. The processing device further includes a retirement unit comprising an instruction tracing module to initiate instruction tracing for instructions executed by the processing device, determine whether the target address of the RET instruction was mispredicted, determine a value of call depth counter (CDC) maintained by the instruction tracing module, and when the target address of the RET instruction was not mispredicted and when the value of the CDC is greater than zero, generate an indication that the RET instruction branches to a next linear instruction after the corresponding CALL instruction.