The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 30, 2001
Filed:
Jun. 02, 1998
Stillman F. Gates, Los Gatos, CA (US);
Uday N. Devanagundy, Hayward, CA (US);
Adaptec, Inc., Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
An integrated circuit includes a monitor port, several circuit modules, and a selection circuit that selects which of the circuit modules drives internal signal through the monitor port. A debugging process can observe the internal signals at the monitor port to identify problems in the integrated circuit. In one embodiment, the selection circuit includes a trace bus that runs serially from the monitor port to each circuit module. Each module has tri-state buffers that connect the module to the trace bus. Alternatively, the selection circuit includes a multiplexer with input ports coupled to the modules. A trace select register controls which module drives the monitor port, and control registers or the current operation of each module select which set of internal signals the module applies to the tri-state buffers. Any of large number of internal signals can be selected and observed by programming the trace select register and the configuration registers for the modules. In one embodiment, the integrated circuit is a host adapter that includes modules operating in different clock domains.