Method and apparatus for offloading functional data from an interconnect component

An interconnect offload component arranged to operate in an offloading mode, and a memory access component for enabling access to a memory element for functional data transmitted over a debug network of a signal processing device.In the offloading mode the interconnect offload component is arranged to receive functional data from an interconnect client component for communication to a destination component, and forward at least a part of the received functional data to a debug network for communication to the destination component via the debug network.The memory access component is arranged to receive a debug format message transmitted over the debug network, extract functional data from the received debug format message, said functional data originating from an interconnect client component for communication to a memory element, and perform a direct memory access to the memory element comprising the extracted functional data.