JP2000020343A - Emulation device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To accurately grasp a current consumption value in a development stage and further to easily calculate the life of a battery by providing a storage device for storing the current consumption of each artificial circuit, calculating a total current consumption value from the respective current consumption values outputted from the respective storage devices and displaying the calculated value. SOLUTION: Respective circuits 1 to 3 are provided with respective storage devices 104 to 106. When the circuit 1 e.g. is instructed to be operated by a CPU, the storage device 104 belonging to the circuit 1 transfers the current consumption value of the circuit 1 and the operation state of the circuit 1 to a control circuit 2. The circuit 2 in an emulator 102 receives the current consumption values of the respective circuits 1 to 3 and after calculating a total current consumption value, transmits the value to a host machine 103 through a communication circuit 2. In the host machine 103, a control circuit 1 displays the total current consumption value on a display device based on the data received through the communication circuit 2 so that the present total current consumption value can be known.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an apparatus for emulating a semiconductor device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, electronic devices have become more portable, and various circuits have been integrated in semiconductor devices used as electronic devices. Particularly, in a single-chip microcomputer, various circuits have been integrated with the increase in the degree of integration of a semiconductor device, and the entire system can be realized by one semiconductor device.

[0003] When carrying an electronic device, it is necessary to drive it with a battery, and the most important is a technology for reducing current consumption. However, in a system such as a single-chip microcomputer in which each circuit on the same semiconductor device is controlled by software, a current consumption value is greatly different between an emulation device as a development device and a final semiconductor device. The reason is that a circuit for debugging software and the like are added to the emulation device, and the same situation as the final semiconductor device cannot be created on the emulation device. Therefore, at the time of development of the semiconductor device, the current consumption value of the semiconductor device is not known at all.

[0004]

According to the conventional method,
It was a system that grasped the outline of the total current consumption by lighting the light emitting element for each circuit, etc.However, a circuit with extremely high current consumption and a circuit with extremely low current consumption are considered the same. The system did not know the exact value.
For this reason, in the software development process of single-chip microcomputers, developers could only try to reduce the current consumption as much as possible, and the final current consumption value could not be known without waiting for the evaluation result of the prototype . Therefore, the calculation of the usable time of the product driven by the battery is only a backward calculation from the evaluation result, and the design in consideration of the battery life could not be performed in the development process of the electronic device.

[0005]

The emulation apparatus according to the present invention includes: a) pseudo circuits each having the same function as each circuit on the semiconductor device; and b) each storage for storing the current consumption of each pseudo circuit. C) an arithmetic unit for calculating a total current consumption value based on each current consumption value output from each storage device in accordance with the operation of each of the pseudo circuits; and d) an output from the arithmetic device. And a display device for displaying the total current consumption value.

Further, the emulation device of the present invention comprises: a) the emulation device; b) a communication device for transmitting a total current consumption value obtained from the emulation device; and c) receiving the total current consumption value. It is characterized by comprising a control device for displaying.

Further, the emulation device of the present invention includes: a) the emulation device; b) a storage device for storing a set current consumption value of each pseudo circuit; and c) transmitting the set current consumption value from the storage device. D) a control device that receives the set current consumption value and resets the storage device prepared for each pseudo circuit.

[0008]

When each pseudo circuit of the semiconductor device operates, current consumption value data is output from a storage device prepared for each circuit. The arithmetic unit calculates the total current consumption value by calculating from the operation status of each circuit and the current consumption value data.

[0009] The calculated total current consumption value is output to an external device via the communication device and displayed by the external device.

Further, the current consumption value of each circuit stored in the external device can be reset to a storage device prepared for each circuit device via the communication device.

[0011]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the case where the present invention is applied to an emulator for software development of a single-chip microcomputer.

Reference numeral 103 denotes a host machine, here, a general-purpose personal computer. The host machine includes at least a control circuit 1, a display device, and a communication circuit 1. 102 denotes an emulator main body, 101
And a control circuit 2 and a communication circuit 2.

[0013] By giving an instruction to the host machine 103, an instruction is passed from the control circuit 1 to the emulator 102 via the communication circuit 1. The emulator 102 receives an instruction from the communication circuit 2 and causes the control circuit 2 to operate the pseudo circuit block 101. This emulates a single-chip microcomputer.

The pseudo-circuit block 101 has substantially the same configuration as a single-chip microcomputer, and includes a CPU as a central processing unit, circuits 1-3.
It is composed of However, the difference from the final single-chip microcomputer is that
Each has 104 to 106 storage devices. This storage device stores a current value consumed by the operation of each circuit, and the value can be transferred to the control circuit 2 in the emulator.

For example, when the CPU instructs the circuit 1 to operate, the storage device 10 attached to the circuit 1
4 transfers the current consumption value of the circuit 1 and the operation state of the circuit 1 to the control circuit 2. The control circuit 2 in the emulator receives the current consumption value of each circuit, calculates the total current consumption value, and transmits it to the host machine via the communication circuit 2.
In the host machine 103, the total current consumption is displayed on the display device by the control circuit 1 based on the data received by the communication circuit 1, and the current total current consumption can be known.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the operation of the control circuit 2 in the emulation block 102.

This apparatus is the same as that shown in FIGS.
06, and the data indicating the operation status of each circuit are inputted. The operation status of each circuit is inputted to the arithmetic and control means, and the current consumption value of each circuit is inputted. Is input to the temporary storage means.

The result storage means stores the current total current consumption value, and the addition / subtraction means adds or subtracts the current total current consumption value and the current consumption value of each circuit to obtain the total current consumption value. Store the value.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing the details of the circuits 1 to 3 of FIG. 1 and the details of the storage device of FIGS.

Reference numeral 305 denotes a main body of any one of the circuits 1 to 3 in FIG. 1, and the operation is controlled by a register 306. The write signal to the register 306 is obtained by decoding the address signal ADDR from the CPU by the decoder 301 and matching the address of the circuit and the AND circuit 302 of the write signal WR only when the write signal WR is enabled. Generated by The state of the data bus D1 at the write timing is written to the register 306. Also, 306
Is output as a STAT signal.

On the other hand, the register 304 stores the current value consumed by the operation of the circuit 305 and outputs it to the dedicated data buses of ID0 to ID3 via the buffer 307. Note that the current consumption value can be reset in the register 304 via the dedicated data bus.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart for explaining the circuit operation of FIG. Under the control of the CPU, ADDR indicates the address of this circuit. If writing to this address is performed, the data on the data buses D0 and D1 will change, and the WR signal will be low at the write timing. Level.

First, 306 in FIG. 3 is initialized to "0", and the STAT signal connected to 306 in FIG. 3 is at a low level. In addition, the circuit 305 in FIG.

Next, "1" is output to D1 under the control of the CPU, indicating that "1" has been written to 306 in FIG. 3 by the address ADDR and the write signal WR.
Thereby, the STAT connected to the output of 306 in FIG.
The signal changes to a high level, indicating that the circuit at 305 in FIG. 3 is operating. At this time, data stored in the register 304 in FIG. 3, that is, "5" is output to the dedicated bus IDs 0 to 3.

Next, "0" is output to D1 under the control of the CPU, indicating that "0" has been written to 306 in FIG. 3 by the address ADDR and the write signal WR.
Thereby, the STAT connected to the output of 306 in FIG.
The signal changes to low, indicating that the circuit at 305 in FIG. 3 is down. At this time, data stored in the register 304 in FIG. 3, that is, "5" is output to the dedicated bus IDs 0 to 3.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the total current consumption in the control circuit shown in FIG. 1 in which the current consumption of each circuit and the operation status of each circuit output from the circuits described in FIGS. 3 and 4 are inputted. It is a flowchart for performing.

First, at 501, a temporary memory and a result memory indicating the total current consumption value are secured. At this time, the result memory is initialized. Next, at 502, it is monitored whether or not the STAT signal has changed. If there is no change, the process waits.

When the STAT signal rises, it indicates that one of the circuits 1 to 3 in FIG.
At 3, the data on the dedicated data bus is fetched into the temporary memory.
At 504, the value of the result memory and the value of the temporary memory are added, and the result is returned to the result memory. Further, the value of the result memory can be sent to the host machine via the communication circuit, and the current total current consumption value can be displayed.

When the STAT signal falls, it indicates that one of the circuits 1 to 3 in FIG. 1 has stopped operating.
At 05, the data of the dedicated data bus is taken into the temporary memory. At 506, the value of the temporary memory is subtracted from the value of the result memory, and the result is returned to the result memory. Further, the value of the result memory can be sent to the host machine via the communication circuit, and the current total current consumption value can be displayed.

[0030]

According to the present invention, the current consumption value, which is the most important item in the development stage of portable equipment, can be accurately grasped, and the calculation of the battery life can be facilitated. As a result, the accuracy of system development and design can be dramatically improved, and the development and design time can be significantly reduced.

Further, by transmitting the calculated total current consumption value to the outside, the current consumption value can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner on the screen of the host machine or the like, and further applied to management of current consumption data. It is possible.

Further, by making it possible to reset the current consumption value of each circuit held on the host machine in each storage device, it is possible to flexibly cope with changes in the characteristics and conditions of each circuit.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a case where the present invention is applied to an emulator for software development of a single-chip microcomputer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit 2 in an emulation block 102;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing details of each circuit of 101;

FIG. 4 is a timing chart illustrating the operation of the circuit of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 shows the output from the circuit according to FIGS. 3 and 4;
1 is a flowchart for calculating a total current consumption value in the control circuit by inputting a current consumption value of each circuit and an operation state of each circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 Simulated circuit 102 Emulator 103 Host machine 104 Storage device 105 Storage device 301 Address decoder 302 AND circuit 303 Data register 304 Data register 305 Simulated circuit 306 Simulated circuit control register 307 Buffer circuit 308 Buffer circuit 501 Initialization processing 502 Simulated circuit Circuit control signal judgment processing 503 Addition data saving processing 504 Addition calculation processing 505 Subtraction data saving processing 506 Subtraction calculation processing

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. a) each pseudo circuit having the same function as each circuit on a semiconductor device; b) each storage device for storing current consumption of each of the pseudo circuits; c) each of the pseudo circuits A computing device that calculates a total current consumption value based on each current consumption value output from each storage device in accordance with the operation; and d) a display device that displays the total current consumption value output from the computing device. Emulation device. 2. The emulation device according to claim 1, b) a communication device for transmitting a total current consumption value obtained from the emulation device, and c) a control for receiving and displaying the total current consumption value. Emulation device consisting of devices. 3. The emulation device according to claim 2, b) a storage device for storing a set current consumption value of each pseudo circuit, and c) a communication device for transmitting the set current consumption value from the storage device. And d) an emulation device comprising a control device that receives the set current consumption value and resets the storage device prepared for each pseudo circuit.