Agere Systems Inc.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Oceager P Yee

Zhigang Ma

Brian J Petryna

Dale Harvey Nelson

Kouros Azimi

A single coder/decoder shared among several multiprocessors in a digital signal processing system through time-division multiplexing between multiple processors to enhance signal processing capabilities by assigning different digital-to-analog channels to different processors for digital-to-analog conversion, while allowing all processors to operate on the same analog-to-digital data for analog-to-digital conversion, thereby resulting in chip area reduction and power consumption saving.

Shared CODEC in multiprocessor systems

Large, complex SoCs comprise interconnections of various functional blocks. Such functional blocks contain scan chains that are used for their individual production testing. The present invention utilizes these scan chains as a tool in the debugging of these SoCs by providing the internal contents of registers and memories contained on the SoC device. Accordingly, both hardware and software designers are provided a means to observe the effect of their designs on the internal operation of the SoC device. The invention is compatible with current integrated circuit design methodology and requires minimal area on the SoC for support circuitry.

System and method for debugging system-on-chips

Large, complex SoCs comprise interconnections of various functional blocks, which blocks frequently running on different clock domains. By effectively controlling the clocks within the SoC, this invention provides a means to halt execution of a SoC and to then single or n-cycle step its execution in a real system environment. Accordingly, the invention provides an effective debugging tool to both the SoC designer and software designers whose code is executed by the SoC as it provides them the capability of studying the cause and effect of interactions between functional blocks. The invention is also applicable to SoCs containing only one functional block while containing complex circuitry operating on a clock different than the block's clock. In particular, the invention permits halting of the block clock and then single or n-cycle stepping its execution to permit analysis of the interactions between the block and the SoC circuitry.

System and method for debugging system-on-chips using single or n-cycle stepping

The present invention provides an architecture for a peripheral device to activate a breakpoint in a processor or other device under emulation. A peripheral breakpoint active signaler allows the peripheral to signal the occurrence of a breakpoint to the processor using a halt or trap line to the processor. This invention provides developers with increased code development capabilities by allowing them to set breakpoints in a peripheral device for the benefit of a processor interfaced with the peripheral to detect when a certain external event has occurred based on the perspective of a peripheral. A breakpoint control register individually enables breakpointing capability of each peripheral with respect to having the capability to halt the processor. Each peripheral has the capability to output a breakpoint request signal to set a bit in a breakpoint status register for readback by the processor, through an external port such as a JTAG test port, or other device.

Peripheral breakpoint signaler

The present invention provides a shared I/O port and a configurable interconnect allowing any of a plurality of cores to access any pin of a shared I/O port. Preferably, one of the plurality of cores is designated as a master core at least with respect to the configuration of the shared I/O port(s), and the remaining cores desiring to gain access to the shared I/O port(s) are designated as non-master or slave cores. It is the responsibility of the master core to reassign chip resources such as the shared I/O port(s) for use by either the master core or by any of the shared cores. Preferably, all shared I/O ports are controlled by default by the master core. The slave cores communicate with the master core through a suitable internal messaging system. If a slave core requires use of a particular I/O pin or I/O port not already configured appropriately for its use, the slave core will send an appropriate message to the master core through the messaging system, e.g., a dual port memory mailbox. Preferably, the master core will then pass a message back to the requesting slave core indicating completion of the requested reconfiguration. The master core preferably keeps track of which core currently has control of each I/O pin or port using appropriate internal registers. The master core communicates with the relevant I/O pin or port using its I/O data bus, while the slave core communicates with the relevant I/O pin or port using its I/O data bus. IOP configuration signals from the master core configure and thus determine which core in the multi-core integrated circuit or hybrid circuit has access to I/O control modules or registers to control the direction, mode, interrupt generation capability, and/or status of the shared I/O port(s).

Shared I/O ports for multi-core designs

A multifunction reset circuit including low power bandgap, a comparator, and an open drain buffer circuit--with the inclusion of four external components (three resistors and one capacitor) to provide undervoltage monitoring, power failure indicating, manual resetting and other reset control conditions to a single integrated circuit terminal, together with hysteresis tolerance.

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Allentown, PA, United States of America

Oceager P Yee