Stmicroelectronics International N.v.

Stmicroelectronics Application Gmbh

Nxp Usa, Inc.

Freescale Semiconductor,inc.

Tmicroelectronics Application Gmbh

Vivek Mohan Sharma

Roberto Colombo

Deepak Baranwal

Samiksha Agarwal

Sandeep Jain

Nicolas Bernard Grossier

Stefan Doll

Arun Kumar Barman

Amulya Pandey

Nikhil Sharma

Arpita Agarwal

Ankur Krishna

Kirk Taylor

Nitin Moudgil

Dhruv Satsangi

Rajesh Gupta

Arnavesh Varun Giri

Sheetal Kumar Jain

A processing system includes safety monitoring circuits configured to generate error signals by monitoring a microprocessor operations, a memory controller, and/or a resource. The system further includes fault collection sub-circuits, each including one or more error combination circuits, each including a first programmable register and being configured to receive a subset of the error signals, determine whether an error signal is asserted, and store to the first register error status data that identifies the asserted error signal. Each error combination circuit is configured to read enable data from the first register and generate a combined error signal based on the error status and enable data. The error management circuit includes a second programmable register and is configured to receive the combined error signals, read routing data from the second register, and generate for each microprocessor an error signal based on the combined error signals and routing data.

Processing system, related integrated circuit, device and method

In an embodiment a processing system includes a reset circuit configured to receive a reset-request signal and one or more further reset-request signals, wherein the one or more further reset-request signals are provided by a processing core, one or more further circuits and/or a terminal of the processing system and to generate a combined reset-request signal by combining the reset-request signal and the one or more further reset-request signals, and a hardware test circuit including for each of the one or more further reset-request signals, a respective first combinational circuit configured to selectively assert the respective further reset-request signal, a second combinational logic circuit configured to selectively mask the combined reset-request signal, and a control circuit configured to repeat operations during a diagnostic phase.

A processing system includes an error detection circuit configured to receive data bits and ECC bits, calculate further ECC bits as a function of the data bits, and generate a syndrome by comparing the calculated ECC bits with the received ECC bits. When the syndrome corresponds to one of N+K single bit-flip reference syndromes, the error detection circuit asserts a first error signal, and asserts one bit of a bit-flip signature corresponding to a single bit-flip error indicated by the respective single bit-flip reference syndrome.

Processing system error management, related integrated circuit, apparatus and method

A processing system includes a processing core including a microprocessor, a memory controller configured to read software instructions for execution by the processing core, a plurality of safety monitoring circuits configured to generate a plurality of error signals by monitoring operation of the processing core and the memory controller, a fault collection and error management circuit implemented as a hardware circuit, and a connectivity test circuit. The fault collection and error management circuit is configured to receive the plurality of error signals from the plurality of safety monitoring circuits and generate one or more reaction signals as a function of the plurality of error signals. The connectivity test circuit is configured to, during a diagnostic phase executed by the processing system after executing a reset phase and before executing a software runtime phase, test connectivity between the plurality of safety monitoring circuits and the fault collection and error management circuit.

In an embodiment a processing system includes a test circuit configured to set an address value, an upper address limit and a lower address limit to a given reference bit sequence, verify whether the upper-limit comparison signal has a respective third logic level and/or whether the lower-limit comparison signal has the respective third logic level, assert an error signal in response to determining that the upper-limit comparison signal does not have the respective third logic level or the lower-limit comparison signal does not have the respective third logic level, repeat a certain operation for each of the N bits.

A system to facilitate communication of a critical signal between functional circuitries of a system-on-chip utilizes a dynamic pattern to securely communicate the critical signal. The system includes selection and comparison circuits. The selection circuit is configured to select and output a set of dynamic pattern bits or a set of fixed reference bits, based on a logic state of the critical signal that is received from one functional circuitry. The comparison circuit is configured to output an output signal based on the set of dynamic pattern bits, and a set of intermediate bits that is derived from the set of dynamic pattern bits or the set of fixed reference bits. The output signal is provided to the other functional circuitry when a logic state of the output signal matches the logic state of the critical signal, thereby securely communicating the critical signal to the other functional circuitry.

System for facilitating secure communication in system-on-chips

A processing system is described. The processing system comprises a microprocessor, a memory controller, a resource and a communication system. The microprocessor is configured to send read requests in order to request the transmission of first data, or write requests comprising second data. The memory controller is configured to read third data from a memory. The processing system comprises also a safety monitor circuit comprising an error detection circuit configured to receive data bits and respective Error Correction Code, ECC, bits, wherein the data bits correspond to the first, second or third data. The safety monitor circuit calculates further ECC bits and generates an error signal by comparing the calculated ECC bits with the received ECC bits. A fault collection and error management circuit receives the error signal from the safety monitor circuits. For example the safety monitor circuit comprises a test circuit configured to provide modified data bits and/or modified ECC bits to the error detection circuit as a function of connectivity test control signals, whereby the error detection circuit asserts the error signal as a function of the connectivity test control signals. The processing system comprises also a connectivity test control circuit comprising control registers programmable via the microprocessor, wherein the connectivity test control signals are generated as a function of the content of the control registers.

In an embodiment, a method includes: receiving, with a first buffer of a first error compactor unit (ECU), a first error packet associated with a first circuit; receiving, with the first buffer, a second error packet associated with a second circuit; transmitting a first reading request for reading the first error packet; receiving the first reading request with an arbiter of an error aggregator unit (EAU) of a central error management circuit; in response to receiving the first reading request, reading the first error packet from the first buffer, transmitting the first error packet to a controller of the central error management circuit, and transmitting a first acknowledgement to the first ECU; receiving the first acknowledgement with the first ECU; and in response to receiving the first acknowledgement, transmitting a second reading request for reading the second error packet.

Circuit and method for capturing and transporting data errors

A system for securing a secret word during a read of the secret word from a read-only memory (ROM) is disclosed. The system includes a memory controller coupled to the ROM and a random number generator coupled to the memory controller. The random number generator is configured to generate a random number. The system further includes a number shuffler coupled to the random number generator and the memory controller. The number shuffler is configured to generate a bit read order based on the random number and the memory controller is configured to read bits of the secret word from the ROM according to the bit read order.

Side channel attack protection

In an embodiment, a method includes: receiving, with a first buffer of a first error compactor unit (ECU), a first memory error packet associated with a first memory; receiving, with the first buffer, a second memory error packet associated with a second memory; transmitting a first reading request for reading the first memory error packet; receiving the first reading request with an arbiter of an error aggregator unit (EAU) of a central memory error management unit (MEMU); in response to receiving the first reading request, reading the first memory error packet from the first buffer, transmitting the first memory error packet to a controller of the central MEMU, and transmitting a first acknowledgement to the first ECU; receiving the first acknowledgement with the first ECU; and in response to receiving the first acknowledgement, transmitting a second reading request for reading the second memory error packet.

A device for a system on a chip (SOC), the device includes: a comparator that includes a first input port, a second input port, and an output port. A first input signal and a second input signal are split into N bit pairs that include one bit from the first input signal and one bit from the second input signal. The comparator is configured so a mismatch between the first input signal and the second input signal causes an output signal to assume a first expected state. The device further comprises a test controller to perform a first operability test by mismatching the N bit pairs and verifying that the output signal assumes the first expected state.

Methods and devices for testing comparators

A system that performs a bus transaction includes a transaction controller and a protection code processing circuit. The transaction controller identifies a set of parameters corresponding to the bus transaction based on address and received control information, and modifies at least one parameter or splits the bus transaction into sub-transactions depending on the parameter values to map the bus transaction to a memory address space. The protection code processing circuit generates and inserts a protection code into data to be written to the memory, and removes a protection code from data read from the memory. The system facilitates error checking without requiring modification of the channels (e.g., bus width) used to read and/or write data to memory.

System and method for performing bus transactions

A fully digital glitch-free clock multiplexer includes a monitoring circuit that automatically switches to a newly selected clock, after a defined time period, from a currently selected clock, when the currently selected clock is absent. A maximum time limit is calculated based on a min and max clock frequency ratio. The monitoring circuit operates only when the clock is being switched. This provides flexibility to software to switch the clock any time whether or not the current clock is present, and prevents the system from hanging in the absence of the clock.

Clock multiplexer for generating glitch-free clock signal

A digital radio frequency (RF) modulator provides modulation for base-band TV signals. The RF modulator provides direct conversion of digital base-band audio and video signals to a desired RF channel frequency, without any analog up conversion. The RF modulator includes an audio module, a video module, and a RF converter. The audio module includes a pre-emphasis filter, a multi-stage audio interpolator and a complex frequency modulator to generate frequency modulated (FM) audio signals. The video module includes a complex VSB filter, a group-delay compensation filter and some processing logic to generate a filtered output video signal. The RF converter includes a complex adder, a complex multiplier and a RF interpolator to construct the base band TV signals and to shift the base band TV signals in a frequency domain to the desired RF channel frequency. The exponential video carrier is generated at baseband and has a frequency whose value is in the range of +/&#x2212;13.5 MHz. The RF interpolator includes a zero pad logic followed by a quadrature band pass filter (BPF), and an optional second stage of another zero-pad logic followed by a real band pass filter (BPF). The second stage is optional in the sense that it is required only if the desired RF channel is in the higher VHF band.

Growing community of inventors

New Delhi, India

Vivek Mohan Sharma