Method and system for testing host bus adapters

• US 7,392,437 B2
• Filed: 01/20/2005
• Issued: 06/24/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Marvell Asia Pte Limited (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Original Assignee: QLogic Corporation (Marvell Technology Group Limited)
• Inventors: Woodral, David E., Bowlby, Gavin J
• Primary Examiner(s): McCarthy; Christopher S
• Application Number:
  US11/039,189
• Publication Number:
  US 20060161702A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• Field of Search: 714/56, 710/71
• US Class Current: 714/56
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/221 to test buses, lines or interfaces, e.g. stuck-at or open line faults

Abstract

A system and method to test a host bus adapter'"'"'s (“HBAs”) ability to handle stream of invalid characters is provided. A data presenter module presents data to a HBA without being aware of a data format. A data producer module that is aware of the data format and schedules special characters so that the HBA can perform alignment operations. A bit offset change module changes a bit offset that is used by the data presenter module and causes to send random serial data to the HBA, which results in loss of alignment in the HBA and causes the HBA to decode invalid characters.

Claims

1. A system for testing a host bus adapter'"'"'s (“

HBA'"'"'s”

) ability to handle stream of invalid characters, comprising;

a computing system coupled to the HBA, where the computing system executes codes for;

(a) a data presenter module that presents data to a HBA without being aware of a data format;

(b) a data producer module that is aware of the data format and schedules special characters so that the HBA can perform alignment operations; and

(c) a bit offset change module that changes a bit offset that is used by the data presenter module and causes to send random serial data to the HBA, which results in loss of alignment in the HBA and causes the HBA to decode invalid characters.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the data presenter module sends 20-bit blocks of data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data producer module creates 8-bit data, converts the 8-bit data into 10-bit data, before sending the 10-bit data to a circular buffer.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the circular buffer is used for staging random data streams, before sending the data to the HBA.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the data presenter module, the data producer module and the bit offset module operate in parallel.

6. A method for testing a host bus adapter'"'"'s (“

HBA'"'"'s”

) ability to handle stream of invalid characters, comprising;

selecting random data, wherein a data producer module selects random data and is aware of a data format, and schedules special characters in the random data so that the HBA can perform alignment operations;

converting the random data to a format that is acceptable to a receive channel in the HBA; and

setting a bit off-set that results in loss of alignment in the HBA and causes the HBA to decode invalid characters, wherein a bit-offset module sets the bit offset.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a data presenter module sends 20-bit blocks of data to the HBA.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the data presenter module is unaware of the data format in which data is presented to the HBA.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the data producer module creates 8-bit data, converts the 8-bit data into 10-bit data, before sending the 10-bit data to a circular buffer.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the circular buffer is used for staging random data streams, before sending the data streams to the HBA.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein a data presenter module, the data producer module and the bit offset module operate in parallel.

12. A testing module for testing a host bus adapter'"'"'s (“

HBA'"'"'s”

) ability to handle stream of invalid characters, comprising;

a computing system coupled to the HBA via a serial interface, where the computing system executes code for;

(a) a data presenter module that presents data to a HBA without being aware of a data format;

(b) a data producer module that is aware of the data format and schedules special characters so that the HBA can perform alignment operations; and

(c) a bit offset change module that changes a bit offset that is used by the data presenter module and causes to send random serial data to the HBA, which results in loss of alignment in the HBA and causes the HBA to decode invalid characters.

13. The testing module of claim 12, wherein the data presenter module sends 20-bit blocks of data.

14. The testing module of claim 12, wherein the data producer module creates 8-bit data, converts the 8-bit data into 10-bit data, before sending the 10-bit data to a circular buffer.

15. The testing module of claim 14, wherein the circular buffer is used for staging random data streams, before sending the data to the HBA.

16. The testing module of claim 12, wherein the data presenter module, the data producer module and the bit offset module operate in parallel.