Interactive dubug tool for programmable circuits
AssigneeXilinx, Inc.
InventorSteven A. Guccione
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An interactive graphical software tool is provided that can be used to report the configuration data (i.e., the state of the various configuration bits) in a programmed device as well as to probe and stimulate circuits in the programmed device. A graphical or textual representation of the configuration data can be displayed. When used with a programmable device having addressable flip-flops, such as a member of the Xilinx XC6200 family, one embodiment of the invention can change the state of any addressable flip-flop in the configured device. The graphical tool of the invention is preferably implemented using a high level programming language such as Java and features a graphical point and click user interface, remote access to hardware, and symbolic debug capability.
Claims15
An interactive software tool for probing a configured programmable logic device having configuration data readback capability, the tool comprising:
- means for specifying a logic cell in the logic device to be probed;
- means for reading configuration data from the specified logic cell;
- and
- means for displaying a graphical representation of logic in the logic device implemented by the configuration data from the specified logic cell.
A method for probing a configured programmable logic device having configuration data readback capability, comprising the steps of:
- a) specifying a logic cell in the logic device to be probed;
- b) reading configuration data from the specified logic cell;
- and
- c) displaying a graphical representation of logic in the logic device implemented by the configuration data from the specified logic cell.
An interactive software tool for stimulating a circuit in a configured programmable logic device having addressable flip-flops, the tool comprising:
- graphical means for addressing a flip-flop in the logic device;
- means for interactively specifying the data to be written to the addressed flip-flop;
- and
- means for changing the state of the addressed flip-flop to match the specified data.
A method for stimulating a circuit in a configured programmable logic device having addressable flip-flops, comprising the steps of:
- a) graphically addressing a flip-flop in the logic device;
- b) interactively specifying the data to be written to the addressed flip-flop;
- and
- c) changing the state of the addressed flip-flop to match the specified data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.