US 11,231,457 B1Granted

Continuous integration for integrated circuit design

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsAdiel Sarusi, Itay Poleg

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Technologies are provided for feature-based continuous integration. A feature manifest can be created that identifies versions of program/hardware definition assets (such as source code files and register-transfer-level (RTL) definition files) that are stored in separate source control repositories but are related to a particular application or hardware feature. The identified versions of the assets can be retrieved from the separate repositories and, optionally, built, deployed, and/or tested. For example, a hardware feature manifest can be defined that identifies a version of an RTL definition for a hardware component stored in a first repository and a version of a verification program stored in a second repository. The hardware feature manifest can be used to retrieve the identified RTL definition from the first repository and to deploy it. The identified version of the verification program can be retrieved from the second repository and used to test the deployed RTL definition.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A system for feature-based continuous integration, the system comprising:

a first source control repository storing a plurality of versions of a register-transfer-level (RTL) definition for an integrated circuit;
a second source control repository storing a plurality of versions of a verification program for testing the integrated circuit;
a third source control repository storing a plurality of versions of a program for operating the integrated circuit;
a hardware feature manifest identifying:
one of the versions of the RTL definition for the integrated circuit, wherein the one of the versions of the RTL is used to implement a feature of the integrated circuit,
one of the versions of the verification program for testing the integrated circuit, wherein the one of the versions of the verification program comprises instructions for testing the feature of the integrated circuit, and
one of the versions of the program for operating the integrated circuit;
and
a continuous integration server configured to:
retrieve, based on the hardware feature manifest, the identified version of the RTL definition from the first source control repository,
retrieve, based on the hardware feature manifest, the identified version of the verification program from the second source control repository,
retrieve, based on the hardware feature manifest, the identified version of the program for operating the integrated circuit,
simulate the integrated circuit using the retrieved version of the RTL definition and the retrieved version of the program for operating the integrated circuit, and
use the retrieved version of the verification program to test the simulated version of the integrated circuit.

11 more elements

A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a request comprising a hardware feature identifier;
retrieving a hardware feature manifest associated with the hardware feature identifier from a computer-readable storage medium, wherein the hardware feature manifest identifies:
a version of a register-transfer-level (RTL) definition for a hardware device, stored in a first source control repository,
a version of a verification program for testing the hardware device, stored in a second source control repository, and
a computing resource required to simulate the hardware device;
retrieving the version of the RTL definition for the hardware device from the first source control repository;
retrieving the version of the verification program from the second source control repository;
identifying a server computer that contains the computing resource required to simulate the hardware device;
simulating the hardware device in the identified server computer using the retrieved version of the RTL definition;
deploying the retrieved version of the RTL definition for the hardware device, wherein the deploying the retrieved version of the RTL definition comprises emulating the hardware device using the retrieved version of the RTL definition;
and
testing the deployed version of the RTL definition using the retrieved version of the verification program.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/366,817Filed 27 Mar 2019
Granted: 25 Jan 2022
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

G01R 31/2896
Testing of integrated circuits [IC]: testing of IC packages; Test features related to IC packages
G06F 30/33
Circuit design at the digital level: design verification, e.g. functional simulation or model checking
G06F 30/367
Circuit design at the analogue level: design verification, e.g. using simulation, simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis [SPICE],…
G06F 30/337
Circuit design at the digital level: design optimisation