On-board diagnostic circuit for an integrated circuit
AssigneeArm Limited
InventorsPaul Kimelman, Ian Field
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An integrated circuit having a plurality of functional circuits interconnected via a functional bus is provided with a diagnostic bus-master circuit which uses bus transactions on the functional bus to perform diagnostic operations. These diagnostic operations can be performed in real time during normal speed operation of the integrated circuit to produce more accurate diagnostic results. The diagnostic bus-master circuit is particularly useful for reading data values from memory or writing data values to memory as part of diagnostic operations.
Claims26
An integrated circuit comprising:
- a plurality of functional circuits for performing data processing operations;
- at least one functional bus for providing communication between said plurality of functional circuits during non-diagnostic functional operation of said integrated circuit;
- and
- a diagnostic bus-master circuit for performing a diagnostic operation upon at least one of said plurality of functional circuits by issuing a bus transaction request via said at least one functional bus to one or more of said plurality of functional circuits during real time operation of said plurality of functional circuits.
A method of performing real time diagnostic operations upon an integrated circuit having a plurality of functional circuits operable to perform data processing operations and at least one functional bus operable to provide communication between said plurality of functional circuits during non-diagnostic functional operation of said integrated circuit, said method comprising the step of issuing a bus transaction request from a diagnostic bus-master circuit via said at least one functional bus to one or more of said plurality of functional circuits during real time operation of said plurality of functional circuits.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.