Patent ID: 7861010
Filing Date: 2010-12-28
Classification: G01R

Abstract:
1. An operation monitor system including a semiconductor apparatus that has one or more connection terminals and one or more devices connected thereto in one-to-one correspondence, and an information collection apparatus that collects condition information from the semiconductor apparatus, the condition information indicating an operation condition of the semiconductor apparatus, the semiconductor apparatus comprising: one or more functional blocks, each operable to perform a predetermined operation, one or more of the functional blocks being an IO functional block whose predetermined operation includes performing input/output of operation information with respect to at least one of the one or more devices; an acquisition unit operable to acquire the condition information from one of the one or more functional blocks; an instruction generation unit operable to generate one of a first instruction and a second instruction for each IO functional block in accordance with a current input/output condition of the IO functional block; and one or more selectors provided in one-to-one correspondence with the one or more connection terminals, each selector being operable to perform connection switching so as to (i) connect the corresponding connection terminal and said IO functional block, when the first instruction has been generated for the IO functional block that is to perform the input/output of the operation information via the corresponding connection terminal, and (ii) connect the corresponding connection terminal and the acquisition unit, when the second instruction has been generated for said IO functional block, wherein while the acquisition unit and the corresponding connection terminal are connected via the selector, the semiconductor apparatus outputs the condition information to the information collection apparatus via the corresponding connection terminal, and the information collection apparatus collects the condition information from the corresponding connection terminal that is connected to the acquisition unit via the selector; each IO functional block is further operable to judge whether the input/output of the operation information is being performed by the IO functional block, and output a judgment result to the instruction generation unit, and the instruction generation unit is further operable to (i) receive the judgment result from each IO functional block, (ii) perform a search based on each received judgment result for one or more functional blocks that are not performing the input/output of the operation information, upon finding one or more functional blocks that are not performing the input/output of the operation information, (iii) specify the one or more selectors whose connection targets are said one or more functional blocks, (iv) select one of the specified selectors to be used in output of the condition information, and (v) generate the second instruction to cause the selected selector to connect the connection terminal corresponding thereto and the acquisition unit.