Apparatus for estimating microcontroller and method thereof

Error detection/correction and fault detection/recovery – Data processing system error or fault handling – Reliability and availability

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C714S045000, C717S134000, C703S028000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06598176

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for estimating (or testing) a microcontroller that has a function of executing program estimation such as program debugging, and a function of executing system estimation such as system debugging, and also relates to a method of executing program estimation and system estimation.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for estimating a microcontroller, including an estimation device that provides a program development environment for debugging a program (software) of a microcontroller, and also provides a user-generated system estimation environment for debugging a system (hardware) generated by a user, and having a system estimation function capable of tracing arbitrarily an operation of an internal bus in the estimation device. The present invention also relates to a method of estimating a microcontroller for executing debugging of a program and debugging of the user-generated system by using the above-mentioned apparatus.
When the user-generated system is estimated, it is necessary at present to return the system back to the environment in which the program was originally developed using an ICE (In-Circuit Emulator) in order to know under which condition the microcontroller exists. On the other hand, the user is likely to use the ICE when developing software for the microcontroller. To assist and satisfy such a need of the user, an ICE-dedicated device is fabricated.
However, the number of man-hours for developing programs of the microcontroller has been reduced and the number of man-hours for estimating the user-generated system after the development of a system estimation device directed to estimate the user-generated system has been reduced, too. In consequence, a demand has arisen for the reduction of the number of man-hours for fabricating a program estimation device, that is, an ICE-dedicated device. As to the user-generated system itself, on the other hand, there has occurred a requirement for estimating the operation of the microcontroller under the same condition as in the case in which a mass-produced chip having the device assembled therein is mounted.
For these reasons, there has occurred the demand for reconsidering ICE-dedicated devices, that have been developed so far, and estimating the user-generated system by the internal functions of the microcontroller.
2. Description of the Related Art
When the program of the microcontroller and the user-generated system are estimated, it has been customary in the past to estimate the program by using an ICE and an ICE-dedicated device, and to estimate the user-generated system by using the system estimation device that is developed separately from the ICE-dedicated device.
Explanation will be given more concretely. Three kinds of chips, that is, EVA (Evaluation), OTP (One Time Programmable) and MASK (Mask), have been developed so far for microcontrollers.
Among these chips, it is the EVA that can be connected to the ICE and can execute program debugging. The ICE-dedicated device described above is assembled into this chip. The OTP is the chip that is practically mounted to a user board and used for estimating the user-generated system. The system estimation device described above is assembled into this chip. After the user-generated system is estimated, the MASK is developed and mass production of the chips is started.
In recent years, however, the OTP incorporating therein the system estimation device has been replaced by a flash microcontroller in which ROM (Read-Only Memory) and RAM (Random Access Memory)comprise a flash memory. Unlike the OTP which can write the program only once, this flash memory can be rewritten 10
2
to 10
5
times. The flash microcontroller containing such a flash memory can easily rewrite the system program, that is, the program for the user-generated system. Therefore, the users are more likely to estimate the system program using the flash microcontroller and then to start as such the mass production of the chips without developing the MASK. In the fields of an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and portable electronic appliances, for example, the number of users who carry out the mass production of chips by using only the flash microcontroller has increased because an upgrade of a version of the system program is frequently made in such fields.
One of the reasons why such a tendency has occurred is because the price of the flash microcontroller, that was once four to five times the price of the MASK, has dropped down to 1.2 to 1.5 times. This tendency has been accelerated at present in the field in which the tendency of the mass production of the chips of the flash microcontroller type has become wide spread. Therefore, it has become necessary at present to separately develop the EVA, which incorporates the ICE-dedicated device, and the flash microcontroller (inclusive of the ODP) which incorporates the system estimation device.
The program development cycles of users have become faster and the program has become fixed within a shorter time in recent years with the result that the estimation schedule of the user-generated system tends to become shorter. Because the number of man-hours for the system estimation device must thus be decreased, it has become more difficult to set the number of man-hours of development of the system estimation device independently of the number of man-hours of the ICE-dedicated device. Furthermore, because the user-generated system has become more complicated, the limit to the estimation of the user-generated system using the system estimation device has become more apparent. It has thus become indispensable to develop a device that can satisfy fully the condition of the program estimation and the condition of the user-generated system estimation.
Namely, even when the microcontroller is estimated by the methods described above, the sum of (number of man-hours of program development+number of man-hours of development of device designed exclusively for ICE) does not match with the sum of “number of man-hours of development of ICE-dedicated device” and “number of man-hours of development of system estimation device”. Thus, means for providing an environment for estimating quickly and efficiently the user-generated system has become necessary. It has become also necessary to provide an estimation environment of the user-generated system that can cope with complication of the user-generated system.
In order to clarify the problems of the estimation system of the microcontroller according to the prior art, that has been devised to eliminate the disadvantages described above, the construction of the estimation device used conventionally for estimating the microcontroller, and the estimation system of the microcontroller using this estimation device, will be explained with reference to
FIGS. 1 and 2
of the later-appearing “BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS”
FIG. 1
shows the construction of the estimation device used conventionally for estimating the microcontroller. As shown in
FIG. 1
, this estimation device (that is, the ICE-dedicated device)
100
incorporates therein a tool interface (that is, ICE interface
104
) having an interface function with an ICE
90
(see FIG.
2
), a CPU (Central Processing Unit) for debugging a program, a peripheral circuit.
107
for processing the control signal sent from the tool interface, a built-in RAM
103
for temporarily storing the program sent from the ICE
90
, and a bus monitoring unit
107
for monitoring the state of an internal bus
160
.
After the ICE-dedicated device
100
is connected to the ICE
900
through the tool interface
104
, it is connected to the system estimation board, etc., through the probe cable (for example, the later-appearing target probe
102
in FIG.
2
). In this way, program debugging and estimation of the user-generated system are executed.
Explanation is given hereby in further detail. In the prior art apparatuses, the ICE-dedicated tool interface
104
is built in the devi

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