A software pipelined loop tracing method involves inhibiting an output of trace data at a start of a software pipelined loop (SPLOOP). A skip in an output trace packet is indicated if the SPLOOP is skipped, and the SPLOOP is indicated at a cycle of an epilog state in the output trace packet if the SPLOOP is not skipped. An iteration count indication SPLOOP information and a position within a SPLOOP, is maintained. A periodic SPLOOP marker (PerSP) coinciding with a sync point is output if the SPLOOP is active.