公开(公告)号：US06223144B1

公开(公告)日：2001-04-24

申请号：US09047809

申请日：1998-03-24

申请人： Philip Barnett ,  Andy Green

发明人： Philip Barnett ,  Andy Green

IPC分类号： G06F945

CPC分类号： G06F11/3664

摘要： A microcontroller software testing tool is disclosed for testing and debugging software for a semiconductor circuit. The microcontroller software testing tool includes a simulator for simulating the execution of the software program on the target semiconductor circuit and an emulator to permit emulation before the actual silicon exists. The emulator utilizes the same high definition language specification, such as VHDL models, that define the silicon during the fabrication process plus additional logic to model behavior of the emulated processor. In a simulation mode, the microcontroller software testing tool simulates the target semiconductor circuit on a general purpose computing device, by interpreting the instructions in the software using an instruction set of the target semiconductor circuit, and otherwise behaving like the target semiconductor circuit; and executes and evaluates the software on the simulated semiconductor circuit. The microcontroller software testing tool monitors the estimated time to execute the software on the semiconductor circuit. In an emulation mode, the microcontroller software testing tool utilizes a low-cost field programmable gate array programmed with a hardware description language description of the target semiconductor circuit. The microcontroller software testing tool is accessible by means of a data exchange protocol provided by the operating system. The microcontroller software testing tool preferably provides a modular configuration. The microcontroller software testing tool monitors the percentage of the code that is executed during testing.

摘要翻译： 公开了用于半导体电路的测试和调试软件的微控制器软件测试工具。 微控制器软件测试工具包括用于模拟目标半导体电路上的软件程序的执行的仿真器以及在存在实际的硅之前允许仿真的仿真器。 仿真器利用与制造过程中定义硅的VHDL模型相同的高清晰度语言规范，以及模拟处理器的行为模型的附加逻辑。 在仿真模式中，微控制器软件测试工具通过使用目标半导体电路的指令集解释软件中的指令，并以其他方式像目标半导体电路一样，在通用计算设备上模拟目标半导体电路; 并执行并评估模拟半导体电路上的软件。 微控制器软件测试工具监视在半导体电路上执行软件的估计时间。 在仿真模式下，微控制器软件测试工具利用用目标半导体电路的硬件描述语言描述编程的低成本现场可编程门阵列。 微控制器软件测试工具可以通过操作系统提供的数据交换协议来访问。 微控制器软件测试工具最好提供模块化配置。 微控制器软件测试工具监视在测试期间执行的代码的百分比。