Integrated circuit (IC) with primary and secondary networks and device containing such an IC

• US 8,990,651 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2008
• Issued: 03/24/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Tabula Incorporated
• Inventors: Miller, Marc, Teig, Steven, Hutchings, Brad
• Primary Examiner(s): Blair, April Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGUYEN, THIEN DANG
• Application Number:
  US12/679,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20110029830A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,377 Days
• Field of Search: 714/734, 714/E11.024
• US Class Current: 714/734
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/3177 Testing of logic operation, e.g. by logic analysers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/221 to test buses, lines or interfaces, e.g. stuck-at or open line faults
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 2029/0409 Online test

Abstract

Some embodiments provide an integrated circuit (“IC”) with a primary circuit structure. The primary circuit structure is for performing multiple operations that implement a user design. The primary circuit structure includes multiple circuits. The IC also includes a secondary monitoring structure for monitoring multiple operations. The secondary monitoring structure includes a network communicatively coupled to multiple circuits of the primary circuit structure. The secondary monitoring circuit structure is for analyzing the monitored operations and reporting on the analysis to a circuit outside of the IC.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit (“

IC”

) comprising;

a primary circuit structure for performing a set of operations that implement a user design, the primary circuit structure comprising a set of configurable circuits and a first interconnect network; and

a secondary monitoring structure for monitoring a plurality of operations in said set of operations, said secondary monitoring structure comprising a second interconnect network that is separate from the first interconnect network, the second interconnect network communicatively coupled to a plurality of configurable circuits in the set of configurable circuits of the primary circuit structure and a set of analysis circuits for (i) analyzing the monitored operations and (ii) generating a set of data that describes the monitored operations, wherein the generated set of data is for indicating an occurrence of a trigger event, wherein said secondary monitoring structure is for modifying configurations of at least one configurable circuit of the set of configurable circuits of the primary circuit structure upon the occurrence of the trigger event.

2. The IC of claim 1, wherein the IC is on a single substrate.

3. The IC of claim 1, wherein said monitored operations are user identified operations.

4. The IC of claim 1, wherein said monitoring occurs while the primary circuit structure performs the operations that implement the user design, wherein the performing of the operations that implement the user design is not impeded by said monitoring.

24. The IC of claim 1, wherein the secondary monitoring structure does not use circuits that would otherwise be used to implement the user design.

25. The IC of claim 1, wherein the secondary monitoring network is not configurable to implement the user design.

26. The IC of claim 1, wherein the second interconnect network is a pipelined packet switched network formed by bitlines that are separate from the first interconnect network.

5. An integrated circuit (“

IC”

) comprising;

a primary circuit structure for performing a set of operations that implement a user design, the primary circuit structure comprising a set of circuits and a first interconnect network; and

a secondary monitoring structure for monitoring a plurality of operations in said set of operations, said secondary monitoring structure comprising a second interconnect network that is separate from the first interconnect network, the second interconnect network communicatively coupled to a plurality of circuits in the set of circuits of the primary circuit structure,

said secondary monitoring structure for monitoring bandwidth through a subset of the set of circuits of the primary circuit structure and reporting the bandwidth, wherein the plurality of circuits comprise a plurality of configurable circuits.

6. The IC of claim 5, wherein the subset of the set of circuits is user identified.

7. The IC of claim 6, wherein the user identified circuits comprise input/output (I/O) circuits of the primary circuit structure.

8. The IC of claim 6, wherein the user identified circuits comprise memories of the primary circuit structure, wherein the secondary monitoring structure is further for reporting memory overflows at the user identified circuits.

9. The IC of claim 6, wherein the secondary monitoring structure is further for reporting a filtered subset of the monitored operations based on a user specified condition.

10. The IC of claim 9, wherein an occurrence of the user specified condition initiates a modification of the configuration of the circuits of the secondary monitoring structure.

11. The IC of claim 9, wherein the filtered subset reporting comprises reporting of anomalous behavior occurring within the user identified circuits, the anomalous behavior defined through the user specified condition.

12. The IC of claim 9, wherein the filtered subset includes operations occurring after the user specified condition.

13. The IC of claim 9, wherein the filtered subset includes operations occurring before the user specified condition.

14. A method for monitoring an integrated circuit (“

IC”

) comprising a primary circuit structure for performing a set of operations that implement a user design, the primary circuit structure comprising a set of configurable circuits and a first interconnect network, and a secondary monitoring structure for monitoring a plurality of operations in said set of operations, said secondary monitoring structure comprising a second interconnect network that is separate from the first interconnect network, the second interconnect network communicatively coupled to a plurality of configurable circuits in the set of configurable circuits of the primary circuit structure, the method comprising;

monitoring a set of resources in the primary circuit structure by passing signals from the set of resources to the secondary monitoring structure;

reporting a subset of the signals by filtering the signals based on a condition; and

automatically generating on said IC a configuration packet to reconfigure at least one configurable circuit of said integrated circuit in response to said reporting.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said set of resources are user selected.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the signals passed include user signals that are generated within the IC and control signals.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the signals passed comprise signals passing through a routing fabric of the primary circuit structure.

21. The method of claim 14, wherein said subset of the signals comprises a signal identifying an anomalous behavior of the IC, and wherein the configuration packet reconfigures at least one configurable circuit of the primary circuit structure to automatically discard data from a source of data that generated the anomalous behavior.

22. The method of claim 14, wherein the set of configurable circuits is a first set of configurable circuits, said secondary monitoring structure comprises a second set of configurable circuits, and the configuration packet reconfigures at least one configurable circuit of the second set of configurable circuits in response to a triggering event generated in said primary circuit structure and detected by trigger circuits of the secondary network.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the trigger circuits of the secondary network are included in said second set of configurable circuits and wherein a condition for detecting a later triggering event is modified by reconfiguring said second set of configurable circuits after the triggering event is detected by the trigger circuits.

18. A method for monitoring an integrated circuit (“

IC”

) comprising a primary circuit structure for performing a plurality of operations that implement a user design, the primary circuit structure comprising a plurality of configurable circuits and a first interconnect network, and a secondary monitoring structure for monitoring a plurality of operations in said set of operations, said secondary monitoring structure comprising a second interconnect network that is separate from the first interconnect network, the second interconnect network communicatively coupled to the plurality of configurable circuits of the primary circuit structure, the method comprising;

identifying a set of resources in the primary circuit structure to monitor through the secondary monitoring structure;

providing the secondary monitoring structure with at least one user specified condition for reporting a filtered subset of data received from the identified set of resources based on the user specified condition; and

automatically modifying a configuration of at least one configurable circuit in response to an occurrence of the user specified condition.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the modified configuration is a configuration of a configurable circuit in the primary circuit structure.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the modified configuration is a configuration of a configurable circuit in the secondary monitoring structure.