The EDSAC Debugger uses a tracing simulator that operates
by:
fetching the simulated instruction;
decoding it to save trace information;
checking to see if the instruction is a branch,
and updating the simulated program counter if it is;
else placing the instruction in the middle of the simulator loop
and executing it directly;
and then returning to the top of the simulator loop.
As an aside, the 1951 paper on the EDSAC debugger
contains a pretty complete description of a modern debugger...
Categories:
See:
From instruction-set simulation and tracing