System and method for integrated circuit emulation

A system comprising:

• an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components used in a system for normal operation;
• the integrated circuit device having at least one program-controlled emulation unit emulating at least one of the program-controlled components of the integrated circuit device;
• at least one statistics memory for storing statistical data of the program-controlled emulation unit during emulation;
• and
• a processor observation block configured to control and/or monitor the emulation, the processor observation block comprising a counter with a counter value to count a number of clock cycles an instruction pointer is within a predetermined address range, to collect the statistical data of the program-controlled emulation unit and send the statistical data comprising the counter value to the at least one statistics memory for storing the statistical data in the statistics memory.

An apparatus for in-circuit emulation of an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components, the apparatus comprising:

• an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components used in a system for normal operation;
• the integrated circuit device having at least one program-controlled emulation unit emulating at least one of the program-controlled components of the integrated circuit device;
• and
• a processor observation block comprising a counter with a counter value to count a number of clock cycles an instruction pointer is within a predetermined address range, to collect statistical data of the program-controlled emulation unit and send the statistical data comprising the counter value to at least one statistics memory for storing the statistical data in the statistics memory.

A method for in-circuit emulation of an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components, the method comprising:

• using an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components used in normal operation of a system containing the integrated circuit device;
• the integrated circuit device having at least one program-controlled emulation unit emulating at least one of the program-controlled components of the integrated circuit device;
• performing an emulation with the at least one program-controlled emulation unit;
• collecting statistical data of the program-controlled emulation unit comprising counting a number of clock cycles an instruction pointer is within a predetermined address range;
• and
• sending the statistical data comprising the count of clock cycles to at least one statistics memory for storing the statistical data in the statistics memory.

A system comprising:

• an integrated circuit device with program-controlled components used in a system for normal operation;
• means for emulating at least one of the program-controlled components of the integrated circuit device;
• and
• means for collecting statistical data of the means for emulating comprising a counter with a counter value to count a number of clock cycles an instruction pointer is within a predetermined address range and sending the statistical data comprising the counter value to statistics memory means for storing the statistical data in the statistics memory means.