Abstract: A system for providing simultaneous, real-time trace and debug of a multiple processing core system on a chip (SoC) is described. Coupled to each processing core is a debug output bus. Each debug output bus passes a processing core's operation to trace capture nodes connected together in daisy-chains. Trace capture node daisy-chains terminate at the trace control module. The trace control module receives and filters processing core trace data and decides whether to store processing core trace data into trace memory. The trace control module also contains a shadow register for capturing the internal state of a traced processing core just prior its tracing. Stored trace data, along with the corresponding shadow register contents, are transferred out of the trace control module and off the SoC into a host agent and system running debugger hardware and software via a JTAG interface.