Patent ID: 7107203

Claim:
In hardware logic emulation system that includes at least two printed circuit boards having a plurality of interconnected emulation processor integrated circuits disposed thereon so that the hardware logic emulation system can execute an emulation program corresponding to a logic design, the printed circuit boards being interconnected by a multi-conductor cable with inputs at one end of the cable and corresponding outputs at other cable end, a method for determining length of the cable while the cable is installed in the emulator thereby interconnecting the printed circuit boards, comprising: prior to installing the cable, interchanging the inputs or outputs of at least one pair of conductors of the multi-conductor cable to denote a cable length; inputting a test pattern to the cable, said test pattern comprised of binary data; collecting an output data pattern from the cable that results from the test pattern; determining the cable length from the output pattern; compiling an emulation program to account for each interchanged pair of conductors, the emulation program corresponding to a logical design for an integrated circuit.