Cadence Design Systems, Inc.

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc.

Barton Quayle

Mitchell Grant Poplack

Peter Tannenbaum

Stephen Paul Sample

Choshu Ito

Sundar Rajan

Charles R Berghorn

Chi Ming Yeung

Chuck Berghorn

Embodiments include herein are directed towards a system and method for circuit emulation. Embodiments may include one or more domains of system components, each respective domain comprising one or more processors of the emulation system. Each respective processor may be configured to execute one or more processing jobs according to an instruction set executed by the respective processor. Embodiments may include a system manager module configured to control an emulation associated with a first domain and identify at least one unused pin associated with the first domain. The system manager module may be configured to allow access to the at least one unused pin for a second domain during the emulation of the first design.

System and method for managing serial lanes in a multi-user emulation system

Embodiments disclosed herein describe switching logic in board-level interconnects and in the system-level interconnects that may provide bitwise dynamic routing and switching between corresponding board-level and system-level components. At board-level, a switching ASIC may receive input data through a backplane from an emulation ASIC in a first logic board and route any bit of the input data to any of the emulation ASIC in a second logic board. At system-level, a switching logic board containing a set of switching ASICs may be associated with a logic cluster and may dynamically route data bits from the emulation ASICs in the logic cluster to emulation ASICs to other logic clusters of the emulation system and/or target systems. Additionally, the switching logic board may dynamically route bits from the other logic clusters to the associated logic cluster.

System interconnect architecture using dynamic bitwise switch and low-latency input/output

The embodiments described herein may improve utilization of an emulator system's resources, and may improve efficiency and effectiveness in bug-identification and/or target-debugging; the components described herein may improve utilization of the emulator's resources, reduce wait time to execute emulation routines, and may limit or eliminate the need to stop or kill emulations in process. The various embodiments described herein allow for dynamically associating domains and targets by dynamically allocating and assigning domains with particular target connections, which are pins and/or wires that connect target pods to the emulation system. An emulation system may comprise one or more target MUXs that are situated between the target connections and the domains, to allow the relationships between target pods and domains to be identified and switched dynamically. The target MUXs may be reprogrammed while emulations are ongoing, in order to redirect data communications between available domains and target pods of target systems.

Relocate targets to different domains in an emulator

Methods and systems for concurrent diagnostics in a functional verification system are disclosed and claimed herein. The methods and systems enable testing the interconnections of a functional verification system while the system implements a hardware design. In one embodiment, a first emulation chip of the functional verification system generates an encoded data word comprising a data word and error correction code (ECC) check bits. The ECC check bits enable a second emulation chip receiving the encoded word to determine whether the data word was received without error. In another embodiment, test patters may be transmitted along the unused interconnections while the functional verification system implements a hardware design in other interconnections. In another embodiment, a dedicated pattern generator generates test patterns to transmit across the interconnection. During clock cycles in which the interconnection is not used to implement the hardware design, a multiplexer transmits the test pattern across the interconnection.

System and method for concurrent interconnection diagnostics field

Clock distribution schemes in emulation systems are typically complex and use significant resources. The present disclosure is generally directed to clock distribution to emulation chips using a serial interconnect mesh. A clock distribution tree is overlayed on the emulation chips allocated to a user's circuit design, the tree branching from a root emulation chip using selected serial interconnections and covering each allocated emulation chip. The emulation chips can recover a clock from received serial signals. The delay associated with each interconnection is determined and used by configuration software when creating the distribution tree. To start emulation stepping synchronously, each emulation chip is configured to know its delay from the root emulation chip. A message is sent from the root emulation chip to each branch emulation chip triggering a timer to countdown a time until emulation is to begin, allowing the emulation chips to start stepping in lockstep.

Method and apparatus for synchronizing circuits in an emulation system utilizing its serial interconnect network

The present patent document relates to a method and apparatus for optimizing access to control registers in an emulation chip. Control messages include in one half of the message a write-mask bits for the corresponding control bits in the other half of the word. A single message from the host workstation can be used to update several bits of the register using a single message, rather than reading, modifying, then writing back each bit individually. Only the bits desired to be updated are written, while the masked bits are not affected. Various configurations of the mask bits and control bits are possible, and block transfers can be used to update bits across a series of registers. The disclosed method and apparatus can reduce overhead and latency on communication channels to the host workstation by significantly reducing the number of individual transfer across the channel.

Method and apparatus for optimizing access to control registers in an emulation chip

An identification system for identifying and validating selected components of a communication system and methods for manufacturing and using same. The communication system includes a host system that is configured to couple with one or more target systems. When the host system is coupled with a selected target system, the communication system can enter an identification mode wherein the selected target system can provide identification data to the host system. The identification data includes information regarding at least one target system characteristic associated with the selected target system such that the host system can attempt to identify the selected target system based at least in part upon the target system characteristics. Once the selected target system has been identified, the communication system likewise can at least partially reconfigure the host system, as necessary, such that the host system can be compatible with the selected target system.

System and method for configuring communication systems

System and method for identifying target systems

An optimized interface for simulation and visualization data transfer between an emulation system and simulator is disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of transferring data between a simulator to an emulator across an interface, comprises updating a simulator buffer of the simulator to contain a desired input state for an emulation cycle. A target write to the interface is performed to indicate that the emulation cycle can proceed. The emulation cycle is completed using an instruction sequencer within the interface independent of the simulator.

Optimized interface for simulation and visualization data transfer between an emulation system and a simulator

A hardware emulation system is disclosed which reduces hardware cost by time-multiplexing multiple design signals onto physical logic chip pins and printed circuit board. The reconfigurable logic system of the present invention comprises a plurality of reprogrammable logic devices, and a plurality of reprogrammable interconnect devices. The logic devices and interconnect devices are interconnected together such that multiple design signals share common input/output pins and circuit board traces. A logic analyzer for a hardware emulation system is also disclosed. The logic circuits necessary for executing logic analyzer functions is programmed into the programmable resources in the logic chips of the emulation system. A method for dynamically testing the interconnect between integrated circuits is also disclosed.

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Barton Quayle