Patent ID: 8396998

Claim:
A decoding extender card comprising: a substrate containing wiring traces for conducting signals; first contact pads along a first edge of the substrate, the first contact pads for mating with a memory module socket on a motherboard; a test socket, mounted to the substrate, for receiving a memory module during testing and programming; wherein the wiring traces on the substrate include lines carrying address, data, and control signals from the motherboard that are passed through to the test socket at pads for connecting to memory chips on the memory module; and an intercepting decoder chip, mounted on the substrate, the intercepting decoder chip decoding a predefined function on the wiring traces, the predefined function being a function of the lines carrying address, data, and control signals from the motherboard; a visual indicator mounted to the substrate, the visual indicator being driven by the intercepting decoder chip when the intercepting decoder chip decodes the predefined function on the wiring traces, wherein the visual indicator is visible to a user; wherein the wiring traces on the substrate include a chip-select line; wherein the intercepting decoder chip receives the chip-select line; wherein the predefined function is detected when the chip-select line is activated; wherein the intercepting decoder chip further comprises: trigger logic that receives the chip-select line and the address signals and generates a trigger signal when a physical address is decoded from the address signals and the chip-select line is activated; a timer receiving a clock from the wiring traces and generating a reset signal after a period of time; a counter that increments a count value when the trigger logic generates the trigger signal and resets the count value when the timer generates the reset signal; decision logic that compares the count value to a threshold and generates an output signal when the count value exceeds the threshold; wherein the output signal causes the visual indicator to be illuminated.