International Business Machines Corporation

Juergen Wakunda

Bodo Hoppe

Benedikt Geukes

Matteo Michel

Sandeep Korrapati

Holger Horbach

Klaus Keuerleber

Joerg Behrend

Alexander Jung

Disclosed aspects relate to controlling an electronic circuit having multiple units with at least one signal input each. A set of signal resources is determined by tracing back a dependency tree for each unit signal input until an endpoint representing a signal resource is reached. For each signal resource in the set a resource manager may be provided in dependence of its signal type. That resource manager may be assigned a set of signal inputs comprising each signal input in the circuit which was traced back to its respective signal resource. The resource manager is configured for controlling the signal resource. A control device may be provided to receive technical implementation requirements for one or more of the resource managers, detect conflicting requirements received for the one or more resource managers, and enable or disable one or more of the resource managers in response to the detected conflicting requirements.

Controlling an electronic circuit

Some embodiments include a method for processing a scan chain in an integrated circuit, the method comprising receiving, in the integrated circuit, the scan chain, wherein the scan chain includes a secret key pattern; separating the secret key pattern from the scan chain; storing the scan chain in a first plurality of latches; storing the secret key pattern in a second plurality of latches; comparing the secret key pattern to a reference key pattern, the reference key pattern stored in a third plurality of latches; determining, based on the comparing the secret key pattern to the reference key pattern, that the secret key pattern does not match the reference key pattern; and generating a signal indicating that the secret key pattern does not match the reference key pattern.

Protecting chip settings using secured scan chains

Some embodiments include a method for processing a scan chain in an integrated circuit. The method can include: receiving, in the integrated circuit, the scan chain, wherein the scan chain includes a secret key pattern; separating the secret key pattern from the scan chain; comparing the secret key pattern to a reference key pattern; determining, based on the comparing the secret key pattern to the reference key pattern, that the secret key pattern does not match the reference key pattern; and generating a signal indicating that the secret key pattern does not match the reference key pattern.

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Ilsfeld, Germany

Juergen Wakunda