DE-BUGGING ENVIRONMENT WITH SMART CARD

• US 20170082687A1
• Filed: 09/23/2015
• Published: 03/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/23/2015
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Klinger, Roland W., Blevins, Dirk F., Morgan, John M., HEATON, ERIC D., Lim, Ai Bee, Wang, Liang-Min
• Application Number:
  US14/862,964
• Publication Number:
  US 20170082687A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/273 Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits G06F11/263 takes precedence

Abstract

A method performed on a user interface device is described. The method includes connecting to a smart card where the smart card is connected to an electronic system to be de-bugged. The method also includes causing a cloud service to download customized test vectors for the electronic system to the smart card. The method also includes causing the smart card to begin execution of test software and/or operation of programmable hardware logic circuitry that uses the customized test vectors to test the electronic system.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a smart card comprising;

a) a connector to removably connect to an electronic system to be de-bugged;

b) at least one of the following;

a CPU complex to execute test software to de-bug the electronic system;

programmable hardware logic circuitry to perform test logic operations to de-bug the electronic system;

c) one or more communication interfaces to;

i) receive a download of customized test vectors for the electronic system from a network, the customized test vectors to be used by the test software and/or the programmable logic circuitry;

ii) communicate with a user interface device, the user interface device to control activity of the smart card.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart card comprises waveform generation circuitry, the waveform generation circuitry to drive input stimuli to the electronic system through the connector.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the smart card comprises a plurality of programmable voltage supply circuits coupled to the waveform generation circuitry, the waveform generation circuitry able to generate input stimuli for the electronic system having different logic voltage levels.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart card further comprises FIFO circuitry to keep digital state information of the electronic system.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the smart card further comprises analog-to-digital circuitry to generate digital samples of a signal'"'"'s voltage waveform, the signal generated by the electronic system.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the smart card comprises a signal line that feeds into said analog-to-digital circuitry and feeds into digital circuitry that determines said signal'"'"'s digital value.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein the smart card is to identify a problem with the signal'"'"'s digital value based on a comparison with a customized test vector and then compare digital samples of the signal taken by the analog-to-digital circuitry against a customized analog test vector for the signal.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein the smart card is to report the problem and/or the digital samples of the signal along with the customized analog test vector to the user interface device.

9. An apparatus, comprising:

a de-bugging system comprising;

a) a smart card comprising;

i) a connector to removably connect to an electronic system to be de-bugged;

ii) at least one of the following;

a CPU complex to execute test software to de-bug the electronic system;

programmable hardware logic circuitry to perform test logic operations to de-bug the electronic system;

iii) one or more communication interfaces to receive customized test vectors for the electronic system that are to be used by the CPU complex and/or the programmable logic circuitry;

b) a cloud service comprising the customized test vectors, the customized test vectors to be downloaded to the smart card through the one or more communication interfaces.

c) a user interface device to communicate with the smart card through the one or more communication interfaces, the user interface device to control activity of the smart card.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the user interface device comprises a storage medium, the storage medium storing program code instructions of the user interface device, the program code instructions to cause the user interface device to perform any of the following:

connect to the smart card;

cause the customized test vectors to be downloaded from the cloud service to the smart card;

cause the test software to execute to test operation of the electronic system;

indicate whether a test of the electronic system has passed or failed.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the user interface device comprises a storage medium, the storage medium storing program code instructions of the user interface device, the program code instructions to cause the user interface device to perform any of the following:

receive digital samples of a voltage waveform of a signal of the electronic system from the smart card;

receive an analog test vector for the signal from the smart card;

display the digital samples against the analog test vector on the user interface device'"'"'s display.

12. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the test software includes generic software stored as firmware on the smart card.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the test software also includes a component of customized test software that is stored in the cloud service.

14. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the smart card further comprises waveform generation circuitry, the waveform generation circuitry to drive input stimuli to the electronic system through the connector.

15. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the smart card further comprises FIFO circuitry to keep digital state information of the electronic system.

16. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein the smart card further comprises analog-to-digital circuitry to generate digital samples of a signal'"'"'s voltage waveform, the signal generated by the electronic system.

17. A method, comprising:

performing the following on a user interface device;

connecting to a smart card, the smart card connected to an electronic system to be de-bugged;

causing a cloud service to download customized test vectors for the electronic system to the smart card;

causing the smart card to begin execution of test software and/or operation of programmable hardware logic circuitry that uses the customized test vectors to test the electronic system.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising the smart card detecting an error in operation of the electronic system and reporting the error to the user interface device.

19. The method of claim 17 further comprising the smart card capturing digital samples of a voltage waveform of a signal of the electronic system while also capturing the signal'"'"'s digital values.

20. The method of claim 19 further comprising smart card detecting a problem in a digital value of the signal and then comparing the digital samples against an analog test vector of the signal.