An embedded 1149.4 extension to support mixed-signal debugging

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2011-01

Authors

José Martins Ferreira (Author) FEUP; Manuel C. Felgueiras (Author) Other; Gustavo R. Alves (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Microelectronics Journal

Vol. 42 No. 1

Pages: 218-232

ISSN: 0959-8324

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Science

Scopus

INSPEC

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Technological sciences > Engineering > Electrical engineering

FOS: Engineering and technology > Electrical engineering, Electronic engineering, Information engineering

Other information

DOI: 10.1016/j.mejo.2010.08.007

Abstract (EN): Debugging electronic circuits is traditionally done with bench equipment directly connected to the circuit under debug. In the digital domain, the difficulties associated with the direct physical access to circuit nodes led to the inclusion of resources providing support to that activity, first at the printed circuit level, and then at the integrated circuit level. The experience acquired with those solutions led to the emergence of dedicated infrastructures for debugging cores at the system-on-chip level. However, all these developments had a small impact in the analog and mixed-signal domain, where debugging still depends, to a large extent, on direct physical access to circuit nodes. As a consequence, when analog and mixed-signal circuits are integrated as cores inside a system-on-chip, the difficulties associated with debugging increase, which cause the time-to-market and the prototype verification costs to also increase. The present work considers the IEEE1149.4 infrastructure as a means to support the debugging of mixed-signal circuits, namely to access the circuit nodes and also an embedded debug mechanism named mixed-signal condition detector, necessary for watch-/breakpoints and real-time analysis operations. One of the main advantages associated with the proposed solution is the seamless migration to the system-on-chip level, as the access is done through electronic means, thus easing debugging operations at different hierarchical levels.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 15