Automatic generation of breakpoint hardware for silicon debug

Scan-based silicon debug is a technique that can be used to help find design errors in prototype silicon more quickly. One part of this technique involves the inclusion of breakpoint modules during the design stage of the chip. This paper focuses on an innovative approach to automatically generate breakpoint modules by means of a breakpoint description language. This language is illustrated using an example, and experimental results are presented that show the efficiency and effectiveness of this new method for generating breakpoint hardware.