Patent ID: 7475303

Claim:
A concentrator and de-concentrator system for simultaneously interfacing a plurality of test instruments with a plurality of processor cores on an integrated circuit, said test instruments and said processor cores being external to said system, said system comprising: (a) on-chip instrumentation associated with said integrated circuit, said on-chip instrumentation comprising: (i) an on-chip instrumentation interface port; (ii) an on-chip instrumentation concentrator for concentrating a plurality of signals into a single signal; and (iii) an on-chip instrumentation de-concentrator for de-concentrating a single signal into a plurality of signals; (b) a probe comprising: (i) a plurality of testing instrument interface ports for connecting to said test instruments; (ii) a probe interface port for connecting to said on-chip instrumentation interface port; (iii) a probe concentrator for concentrating a plurality of signals into a single signal; and (iv) a probe de-concentrator for de-concentrating a single signal into a plurality of signals; (c) a connector mechanism for providing a transmission path between said probe interface port and said on-chip instrumentation interface port; (d) said probe concentrator for concentrating a plurality of signals from said test instruments into a first serial signal stream for transmission over said connector mechanism; (e) said on-chip instrumentation de-concentrator for de-concentrating said first serial signal stream into a plurality of signals to be directed to at least one of said processor cores; (f) said on-chip instrumentation concentrator for concentrating a plurality of signals from said processor cores into a second serial signal stream for transmission over said connector mechanism; and (g) said probe de-concentrator for de-concentrating said second serial signal stream into a plurality of signals to be directed to at least one of said testing instruments; (h) wherein said testing instruments simultaneously access and control respective ones of said processor cores.