Patent · US Expired

Code coverage testing in hardware emulation

US7502728B1 · kind B1 · utility

14Cited by

22References

18Claims

0Family size

Assignee

Unisys Corporation · US

Inventors

Steven Hurlock · Lansdowne, US
Stephen Kun · Herzberg, DE
Robert A. Johnson · Pottstown, US
Jeremy Nichols · Sunnyvale, US
Arthur J. Nilson · Norristown, US

Key dates

Filing date	Dec 20, 2002
Grant date	Mar 10, 2009
Priority date	—
Expiry date	Apr 14, 2024

Classification

Technology area (CPC G)Physics
CPC primaryG01R31/318357
WIPO fieldMeasurement
WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

Code coverage questions are addressed by a code coverage method that instruments an electronic module source design file with coverage probes and gives hierarchical names to the probes, then provides therefrom an instrumented gate level netlist. The instrumented netlist is run on a hardware emulator, executing reset trigger scripts to reset the branch and statement probes, and then a fully initialized design is driven in emulation on a simulated testbench from which the probe values are retrieved. These values can then be evaluated to determine the extent of code coverage. Various forms of coverage are supported including branch, statement, reset trigger and toggle coverage.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.