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:
Mar. 15, 2005
Filed:
Jan. 31, 2000
Robert J. Devins, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Paul G. Ferro, South Burlington, VT (US);
Robert D. Herzl, South Burlington, VT (US);
Kenneth A. Mahler, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Robert J. Devins, Essex Junction, VT (US);
Paul G. Ferro, South Burlington, VT (US);
Robert D. Herzl, South Burlington, VT (US);
Kenneth A. Mahler, Essex Junction, VT (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The time, effort and expense required to develop verification software for testing and de-bugging system-on-chip (SOC) designs represents a considerable investment. According to the method of the present invention, a portion of such verification software may be re-used in an operating system (OS) (i.e., a system used for, e.g., general business, technical or scientific applications as opposed to software testing) to capitalize on the investment. The verification software includes low-level device drivers (LLDDs) which were coded for and paired with specific device designs ('cores') throughout the verification process, and were consequently also verified (i.e., de-bugged) in the process. Thus, the low-level device drivers represent reliable software with detailed knowledge of the corresponding devices. By developing a thin middle-level device driver layer of software to interface between a particular OS and the lower-level device drivers, the LLDDs can be re-used in an OS that uses devices that the LLDDs were designed for. This frees SOC customers from having to develop low-level software and instead allows them to concentrate on developing their particular applications, or 'value-added' software.