Patent Abstract:
A novel reconfigurable logic element (RLE) architecture for use in an integrated circuit itself used in an emulation system is disclosed. The RLE has lookup table logic circuitry for implementing a function. In addition, the RLE contains multi-stage coupling logic circuitry correspondingly coupling RLE inputs to the inputs of the lookup table logic circuitry. This allows global routing of the emulation system by circuit design mapping software to be much more flexible, as the routing may be configured independently of those four input constraints due to the ability to reassign the inputs with the swapper.

Full Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention pertains to the field of reconfigurable logic circuitry. More particularly, this invention relates to the design and use of reconfigurable logic circuitry, such as special purpose Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) for use in emulation of integrated circuit (IC) designs.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    With advances in integrated circuit technology, various technologies have been developed to aid circuit designers in designing and debugging highly complex integrated circuits. In particular, emulation systems comprising reconfigurable logic elements have been developed for circuit designers to “realize” their designs in hardware for more rapid verification of these designs.  
           [0003]    The first generation of prior art emulation systems were typically formed using general purpose FPGAs. To emulate a circuit design on one of such emulation systems, the circuit design would be “realized” by compiling a formal description of the circuit design; partitioning the circuit design into subsets, mapping the various subsets to the reconfigurable logic resources of the FPGAs of various logic boards of the emulation system, and then configuring and interconnecting the reconfigurable logic resources. The partitioning and mapping operations would typically be performed on workstations that are part of, or complementary to, the emulation systems, while the configuration information would be correspondingly downloaded onto the logic boards hosting the FPGAs, and then onto the FPGAs.  
           [0004]    With advances in integrated circuit and emulation technology, some late model emulation systems employ “FPGAs” specifically designed for emulation purposes. For example, during emulation, test stimuli are generated either on the workstation or on a service board of the emulation system under the control of the workstation. The test stimuli are transferred to the various logic boards for application to the realized circuitry of the IC design being emulated. Debugging information such as state data of various circuit elements, as well as signal states of interest of the IC design being emulated, would correspondingly be read out of the applicable FPGAs, and then transferred off the logic boards, for analysis on the workstation.  
           [0005]    To support these debugging resources, as well as requirements for increased logic emulation capability in light of today&#39;s larger circuits, these special “FPGAs” or emulation ICs would typically include a substantial amount of on-chip reconfigurable logic elements, memory and debugging resources. Notwithstanding an increase of interconnects on the boards containing these emulation ICs, the dramatic increase in the number of resources in today&#39;s emulators results in a longer compile time to map an IC design to the reconfigurable emulation resources of an emulator. Thus, emulation resources with improved routability, and emulation systems using such improved routability emulation resources are desired.  
         BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0006]    The present invention provides methods and apparatuses that support a reconfigurable logic element (RLE) architecture for use in an emulation system. The RLE has lookup table logic circuitry for implementing a function. In addition, the RLE contains multi-stage coupling logic circuitry correspondingly coupling RLE inputs to the inputs of the lookup table logic circuitry. The present invention allows global routing of the emulation system by circuit design mapping software to be much more flexible, as the routing may be configured independently of input constraints due to the ability to reassign the inputs with a multistage coupling network. With one exemplary embodiment of the invention, the multistage coupling network utilizes six two-signal switching circuits, while a variation of the exemplary embodiment utilizes five two-signal switching circuits. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0007]    Illustrative embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings. The drawings are not, however, intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Similar references in the drawings indicate similar elements.  
         [0008]    [0008]FIG. 1 illustrates the major functional blocks of an illustrative embodiment of a logic board in accordance with at least one aspect of the present invention;  
         [0009]    [0009]FIG. 2 illustrates an illustrative embodiment of a hosted emulation IC of FIG. 1 in further detail, in accordance with at least one aspect of the present invention;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 3 illustrates a portion of an illustrative reconfigurable logic element (RLE);  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 4 illustrates a portion of an illustrative embodiment of a reconfigurable logic element (RLE) including swapper logic in accordance with at least one aspect of the present invention;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 5 illustrates an emulation system as may be used in accordance with at least one aspect of the present invention;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 6 shows an illustrative embodiment of the swapper logic of FIG. 4;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 7 shows a table of illustrative input/output mappings;  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 8 shows a table containing an illustrative configuration of a six configuration bit swapper;  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 9 is a continuation of the table that is shown in FIG. 8;  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 10 shows another illustrative embodiment of signal swapper logic of FIG. 4; and  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 11 shows an illustrative emulation system that may be used with at least one aspect of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0019]    The following disclosure describes a novel architecture for a reconfigurable logic element (RLE) providing for increased routability of input signals associated with the RLE. The phrase “reconfigurable logic element” is used throughout this invention description, and is not intended to be limited to any particular reprogrammable logic block but should be interpreted, with the exception of the novel features of the disclosed invention, as one of any number of types of reconfigurable logic resource elements.  
         [0020]    Referring to FIG. 1, an illustrative logic board  100  may include on-board data processing resources  102 , on-board emulation ICs  104 , on-board reconfigurable interconnects  106 , board bus  108 , and on-board trace memory  110  coupled to each other as shown (e.g. through board bus  108 ). Additionally, on-board emulation ICs  104  may also directly coupled to on-board trace memory  110 . Logic board  100  may further include a plurality of I/O pins (not explicitly illustrated). A first subset of the I/O pins may be employed to couple selected ones of outputs of reconfigurable interconnects  106  to reconfigurable interconnects of other logic boards and ultimately to emulation resources  120  of the other logic boards (thereby coupling the emulation resources of the logic boards). A second subset of the I/O pins may be employed to couple data processing resources  102  to certain control resources, such as a control workstation  115 .  
         [0021]    One or more emulation ICs  104  may be used to “realize” the netlists of a digital or an analog IC design to be emulated. The emulation ICs  104  may each include reconfigurable logic resources and reconfigurable interconnect resources. Together, these are referred as emulation resources. These reconfigurable logic resources may include reconfigurable logic elements (RLEs), which also may be referred as configurable logic blocks (CLBs). Reconfigurable interconnects  106  may facilitate coupling of the emulation resources of the various emulation ICs  104  of the different logic boards  100  (or with the same logic board) employed to form an emulation system. Board bus  108  and trace memory  110  may perform their conventional functions of facilitating on-board communication/data transfers, and collection of signal states of the various emulation signals of the assigned partition of the IC design being emulated.  
         [0022]    Referring to FIG. 2, emulation IC  104  may include reconfigurable logic resources (RLR)  202 , reconfigurable interconnects (RIN)  204 , emulation memory (MEM)  206 , debugging resources (DBR)  208 , and/or configuration registers (CR)  212  and  214  coupled to each other as shown. Reconfigurable logic resources  202  and emulation memory  206  may be used to “realize” circuit elements of a design (or a partition thereof) to be emulated. Reconfigurable interconnects  204  may be used to reconfigurably couple reconfigurable logic resources  202 , memory  206 , and/or other resources.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 3 illustrates an illustrative reconfigurable logic element (RLE), such as may be part of the reconfigurable logic resources  202 . As shown, RLE  300  includes a multiple input-single output truth table  302 , a pair of master-slave latches  306 - 308 , control logic  310 , and a plurality of input and output multiplexors coupled to each other as shown. Truth table  302  is used to reconfigurably generate an output in response to a provided set of inputs to the truth table. For the illustrated embodiment, truth table  302  has four inputs,  10 - 13 , and a single output. However, any number of inputs and outputs may be used. Thus, truth table  302  may be programmed to realize any one of a plurality of different Boolean functions. As shown in the drawing, the inputs  10 - 13  to truth table  302  may also be used as control signals, such as set, reset, enable and/or clock, for master-slave latches  306 ,  308 . Thus, input functions for I 0 -I 3  may be fixed to the inputs of the RLEs.  
         [0024]    A swapper  320 , as shown in FIG. 4, may be disposed between the inputs to the RLE  300  and the inputs of truth table  302 . Swapper  320  may provide a translation between inputs and outputs. However, other embodiments of the invention may utilize other types of logic entities to provide a corresponding switching functionality such as a switch matrix, crossbar switch, and/or multiplexer configuration. In one embodiment, swapper  320  includes configurable logic and/or circuitry that “bijectively” maps RLE inputs I 0 -I 3   312 - 318  to truth table input and clock control signals I 0 ′-I 3 ′  322 - 328 . A mapping is bijective if the mapping is one-to-one mapping and onto. In other words, for a mapping to be bijective, an input maps to only one output but not to a plurality of outputs. For example, the swapper  320  maps RLE input I 0   312  to any of the swapper&#39;s  320  outputs, I 0 ′-I 3 ′  322 - 328 . Similarly, the remaining inputs I 1 -I 3   314 - 318  may also be routed to any of outputs  10 ′- 13 ′  322 - 328  except for the output to which I 0   312  was routed. Other embodiments of the invention may support other types of mapping, e.g., mapping an input to a plurality of outputs. In another embodiment, swapper  320  includes reconfigurable logic and/or circuitry to dynamically reconfigure the mapping between I 0 -I 3   312 - 318  and I 0 ′-I 3 ′  322 - 328 . In another embodiment, the swapper  320  is reconfigurable independent from other configurable logic in the RLE, such as the truth table  302 .  
         [0025]    In comparison with other switching configurations, such as crossbar switch, the swapper  320  may utilize less electrical power and may require less circuit complexity because an input to the swapper  320  does not map to a plurality of outputs, as may be the case with other switching configurations. Moreover, the swapper  320  may facilitate configuring the emulation board  100  because the swapper  320  provides an additional degree of freedom for switching logic signals with the emulation board  100 .  
         [0026]    A swapper (as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 10) may be used to support functionality (that is not limited to a RLE, e.g. RLE  300 ) in an emulation system. In an embodiment of the invention, a swapper may be incorporated in the reconfigurable interconnects  106 . The reconfigurable interconnects  106  may be implemented with at least one swapper and may also include other switching configurations, e.g. a crossbar switch, with the at least one swapper.  
         [0027]    The inputs to the RLE may be completely undifferentiated. Thus, for instance, any one of the inputs may couple, in addition to any of the inputs of the truth table logic  302 , to any of the control signals feeding the control logic  310  of the sequential elements  306 ,  308 .  
         [0028]    [0028]FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of an emulation system including an emulator  506  and a control workstation  502 . In the embodiment shown, control workstation  502  contains design routing software  504 . One of the functions of design routing software  504  is to “compile” a design to be emulated. Such a compilation may involve partitioning the design among the various reconfigurable logic resources of the emulator as well as routing signals that are required to connect these resources. As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art of placement and routing of designs, as design size increases, and correspondingly the utilization of reconfigurable logic resources on emulation ICs  104 , the design routing software  504  will have a more difficult time performing the routing for a given placement of design elements in the reconfigurable logic resources on-board the emulation ICs  104 . As the reconfigurable logic resources fill, routing time becomes exponentially longer. Even more problematic, as resources become very highly utilized, the routing software, at times, will not be able to perform the routing for a given placement. This inability to route results in the design routing software  504  having to reassign the design in the reconfigurable logic resources and perform another routing of the design. By adding a swapper (such as swapper  320 ) to the input of some or all of the RLEs, an additional resource may be provided to the design routing software  504  to enable it to globally route designs that would otherwise not be routable or, in the cases where designs are routable, to route those designs more quickly. This added routing ability is facilitated by the fact that, as previously discussed, some, if not all, of the inputs to the RLE may now be completely undifferentiated. In one embodiment of the present invention, the swapper logic may be reconfigured independently from other elements in the design, even on a RLE-by-RLE basis. A potential advantage of this embodiment is the ability to perform minor design tweaks in a design and have the design routing software  504  provide very quick design rerouting as a result of the ability to simply change the configuration in a single RLE or small number of RLEs.  
         [0029]    [0029]FIG. 6 illustrates one embodiment of the swapper  320 , in which the swapper  320  is an optimized matrix with reduced configurations points to create a one to one correspondence of four inputs to four outputs in a RLE used for emulation. In this embodiment, the logic circuitry  600  is a three-stage network of two-signal switching circuits  602 - 612  that, together, are capable of swapping four inputs, as discussed above, to four outputs. The six two-signal switching circuits  602 - 612  are each controlled by a configuration bit  622 - 632 . Each configuration bit informs the appropriate two-signal switching circuit as to whether each input to the two-signal switching circuit should be passed through or switched. For example, in one embodiment, where configuration bit  622  is set to zero, two-signal switching circuit  602  is commanded to pass outputs directly through. As a result, output  642  of circuit  602  would be driven by input IA and output  644  would be driven by input IB. Conversely, where configuration bit  622  is set to one, the outputs  642 ,  644  are consequently swapped. In other words, input IA would drive output  644  while input  1 B would drive output  642 . Of course, the configuration bit may operate in an opposite manner as described above, i.e., a configuration bit set to zero is a command to switch and a configuration bit set to one is a command to pass.  
         [0030]    The three stage network embodiment discussed above potentially provides an advantage over a standard crossbar interconnect for a four input to four output mapping. In such a traditional mapping, sixteen configuration bits would be required to configure the interconnect points of a four-to-four mapping. The above-described embodiment however, uses a scant six configuration bits and thus a savings of ten bits per RLE. Given that the current generation of emulation ICs have on the order of 1,000 RLEs on a device, a savings of on the order of 10,000 configuration bits per device may result. Moreover, with each emulation board  100  having upwards of forty-four emulation ICs  104 , this may result in the savings of a half million configuration bits per emulation board in an emulation system. Consequently, the savings during the configuration and reconfiguration of the emulation system can be significant.  
         [0031]    Although swapper  320  supports four inputs and four outputs as shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 6, and FIG. 10, swapper  320  may support a different number of inputs and outputs, which may be generalized to N inputs and M outputs, where N and M may be the same or different. A swapper may comprise an input interface, an output interface, and a switching module. The input interface accommodates the N inputs by providing mechanical and/or electrical connectivity for the N inputs. The output interface accommodates the M outputs by providing mechanical and/or electrical connectivity for the M outputs. A switching module, which couples to the input interface and to the output interface, bijectively maps the N inputs to the M outputs. Where there are a greater number of inputs than outputs, then it may be decided that some of the inputs may not be used. Similarly, where there are a greater number of outputs than inputs, then some of the outputs may not be used. For example, where N=4 and M=6, then two of the outputs could be left unused (e.g., not mapped to an input) or even tied to other of the outputs. Thus, the swapper in such an example may be considered to have four inputs and four outputs, as well as two extra unused outputs.  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 7 shows input to output pattern mappings and a mapping assignment in accordance with one embodiment. Note that with a four input and four output swapper there are a total of 24 (24=4×3×2×1=4!) different combinations of input to output mappings. As noted in the discussion associated with FIG. 6, there are six configuration bits  622 - 632 . FIGS. 8 and 9 together illustrate a truth table showing the different configurations bits possible (2 6 =64) and the corresponding input to output pattern mappings for this embodiment. The truth table indicates that there are a significant number of repeated pattern numbers  810  over all values of the configuration bits. (A pattern number is associated with a unique input-to-output mapping for swapper  320 . For example, pattern number  7  corresponds to a mapping IB to OA, IA to OB, IC to OC, and ID to OD.)  
         [0033]    Referring to the embodiment as shown in FIG. 6, a “0” configuration bit for a two-signal switching circuit results in a non-swap of the two inputs, whereas a “1” configuration bit induces a swap. Reviewing the table entries for input/output pattern combinations in FIG. 8, while holding SW 11  at a “0”, one notes that all possible input/output pattern combinations occur (bolded-italicized rows). Since the case of holding SW 11  at a “0” is the same as logically replacing SW 11  with wires, it is possible to perform all input/output mappings with only five two-signal switching circuits as shown in FIG. 10. Further analysis of Tables  8  and  9  indicates that it is possible to remove any one of the six swappers and perform the complete input/output mapping. Empirical analysis can be verified with a more formal approach. There are 2 6  (64) possible configuration combinations, utilizing  6  configuration bits. However, there are only twenty-four combinations required to perform all input/output pattern mappings. Since five configuration bits provide for 2 5  (32) combinations, it follows that, while an embodiment uses six configuration bits, it is possible to provide for the twenty-four different input/output pattern mappings with five configuration bits with a variation of the embodiment.  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 11 shows a block diagram of an emulation system formed using logic boards  100 . As illustrated, emulation system  1100  includes control workstation  1102  and emulator  1106 . Control workstation  1102  is equipped with design routing software  1104 . Emulator  1106  includes a number of logic boards  100 , each having a number of emulation ICs  104 , trace facilities (not shown) and reconfigurable interconnects  1110  disposed thereon. In addition to logic boards  100 , emulator  1106  also includes service and I/O boards  1108 . Boards  100  and  1108  are interconnected by inter-board interconnects  1110 . In one embodiment, various boards  100  and  1108  are packaged together to form a “crate” (not shown), and the crates are interconnected together via inter-board interconnects  1110 . The precise numbers of emulation ICs  104  disposed on each board, as well as the precise manner in which the various boards are packaged into crates, are not limited by the present invention and are application dependent. Design routing software  1104  may require modification for support of the swapping configuration logic in the RLEs as described herein. However, design routing software  1104  is otherwise intended to represent a broad range of the software typically supplied with an emulation system. Additionally, emulator  1106  is intended to represent a broad range of emulators known in the art.  
         [0035]    Thus, a RLE equipped with an input line swapper, as well as an improved IC, logic board, and emulation system, along with methods associated therewith, have been described herein. While the apparatuses and methods of the present invention have been described in terms of the above illustrated embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the various aspects of the present invention are not limited to the embodiments described. The present invention can be practiced with modification and alteration within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The description is thus to be regarded as illustrative rather than restrictive of the present invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7