International Business Machines Corporation

Hao That Ton

Stephen Dale Hanna

Steven G Ludwig

An integrated circuit device or chip enables a system interface to read multiple design level/version numbers of multiple and independent version numbers per chip to identify independently modifiable sub-sections of the chip (or module) design. The design enables one to store both creation and modification dates and/or version numbers for each sub-section or partition of the chip design, referred to herein generally as functional units. The values can be hard-coded into the design, such as in the case of an ASIC, or they can be placed in a FPGA download design and stored as part of the FPGA configuration procedure. The values can also be stored from the input pins of the integrated circuit. The readout of the version information can be performed via a hardware trace register readout through a system interface. In this manner one is enabled to implement multiple level control to separate the functional and diagnostic area of the chip.

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Hao That Ton