Data processing: structural design – modeling – simulation – and em – Emulation – In-circuit emulator
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-29
2001-08-07
Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2123)
Data processing: structural design, modeling, simulation, and em
Emulation
In-circuit emulator
C703S026000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06272454
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to technology for the sharing of a testing and debugging environment for the purpose of both on-line and off-line testing and debugging of firmware functions that are incorporated into devices containing microprocessors, in a wide band switch (switching unit).
2. Description of the Related Art
In the past, in narrow band switching little development effort was required because the scale of the firmware was small. In addition, each unit had to be tested individually because the hardware configuration of each was different.
Consequently, it was not permissible for firmware to contain bugs. In an on-line system, if a problem occurred at the site where that system was installed, a great deal of effort was required to investigate the cause.
In recent years, as switch band widths have been becoming wider, in order to lighten the load on software the scale and complexity of the firmware used to control the hardware have been continually increasing. Naturally, since the function of firmware differs depending on the unit into which it is incorporated, a single system can contain several tens of pieces of firmware. In addition, as the scale becomes larger quality deteriorates, and more and more problems have been occurring at sites where systems are installed.
In debugging firmware, in the past in-circuit emulators were used, but as hardware has become faster acting, if the device concerned is operating on-line, in some cases it becomes impossible for the operation of an in-circuit emulator to keep up with it so that the in-circuit emulator cannot function normally. In particular, this problem occurs frequently in cases of duplexed devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been conceived in light of the background described above, for the purpose of making it easier to debug firmware.
The first embodiment of this invention provides a device for the purpose of debugging the device that executes the target firmware inside the various devices that compose the wide band switching system.
The device that executes the target firmware includes a general purpose interface driver module that controls the input to and output from a general purpose interface such as an RS
232
C (the RS
232
C driver
106
), and a debugger module (OS debugger
105
) that captures the input/output to/from the target firmware and switches that input/output with the general purpose interface module.
The above-described configuration of the first embodiment of this invention makes it possible to easily connect a device that executes each type of firmware that composes (for example) a wide band switching system to a personal computer using (for example) a general purpose RS
232
C interface, which in turn makes it possible to easily obtain debugging operation using the debugger in the personal computer.
In addition, since the target firmware does not need to know the debugging status, on-line operation is possible.
As a result, it is easy to debug a system at the location where the system is installed.
Further, by for example operating the debugger module and the general purpose interface module in a space at privilege level
0
independent of the operating system that executes the target firmware, it becomes possible to debug all of the high speed devices that compose the wide band switching system.
In the configuration of this invention described above, it is possible to also include a file loading module that loads desired firmware or test programs into the memory area managed by the debugger module (OS debugger
105
).
In this configuration, even in the in-house pre-shipment inspection it is possible to easily connect a device that executes the various types of firmware that compose a wide band switching system to a personal computer using for example a general purpose RS
232
C interface, making it possible to easily load test programs and carry out the pre-shipment tests.
In addition, in the first embodiment of this invention, it is possible to easily obtain a high performance debugging environment by having the debugger module provide debugging functions corresponding to an in-circuit emulator through a general purpose interface.
The second embodiment of this invention provides a device for the purpose of performing debugging or simulation of the device that executes the target firmware in the various devices that compose a wide band switching system.
The device that executes the target firmware and the target firmware simulation program or the hardware simulation program includes a general purpose interface driver module that controls the input to and the output from the general purpose interface (the RS
232
C driver
1005
), and a connector module (the firmware connector
1004
and the hardware connector
1008
) that captures the input to and the output from the target firmware and the target firmware simulation program or the hardware simulation program, then inputs it to or outputs it from a socket established between itself and another device or terminal that executes cosimulation, and in addition switches the data communicated through that socket with a general purpose interface driver module.
The configuration of the second interface of this invention described above makes it possible to easily connect a terminal that emulates operations of a peripheral device to a target device, even if the actual peripheral device is not connected, using a general purpose interface, and to simulate the operations of the target device with that terminal.
In the above described second embodiment of this invention, the connector module can be configured so that it captures the input to and output from a plurality of target firmware, target firmware simulation programs and/or hardware simulation programs, and assigns identifiers to them for the purpose of uniquely identifying each piece of hardware or firmware.
This configuration makes it possible to test target devices with only the target device itself and a terminal that is connected to it through a general-purpose interface, without connecting the plurality of peripheral devices that would normally be connected to the target device.
In particular, in the configuration described above, cosimulation among a plurality of independent devices each containing firmware, and cosimulation with respect to communication among duplexed devices, can easily be achieved.
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patent: 7-262045 (1995-10-01), None
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Ise Noboru
Ishioka Eiji
Morita Sumie
Sekine Shigeru
Someya Tomoki
Frejd Russel W.
Fujitsu Limited
Helfgott & Karas P.C.
Teska Kevin J.
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