Hardware Trace Infrastructure for Functional Safety Evaluation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Implementing functional safety in complex multi-segment integrated circuits is costly and challenging due to high design costs associated with hardware safety features, and software techniques provide limited diagnostic coverage and are difficult to measure.
Innovation Solution
Leveraging the hardware trace and debug infrastructure of System on Chip (SoC) devices to capture functional safety-related data, combining software techniques with hardware trace data to validate operational safety without incurring redesign costs, using dedicated hardware resources that do not significantly impact system performance.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If hardware safety features are integrated into complex multi-segment integrated circuits, then functional safety and reliability are improved, but design costs and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the hardware trace infrastructure serve dual purposes: traditional debugging/trace functionality and functional safety evaluation. By configuring existing trace points and interconnects to capture safety-relevant data alongside debug data, the system achieves functional safety without adding dedicated safety hardware, thus improving reliability while avoiding increased device complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses its own existing hardware trace resources to perform functional safety evaluation internally. The trace infrastructure captures safety data from critical circuits and interfaces, and the safety evaluation logic processes this data using available processing elements, enabling the system to self-evaluate its functional safety without external safety subsystems
2Ease of manufacture
If software techniques are used to implement functional safety, then design costs are reduced, but diagnostic coverage is limited and difficult to measure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces hardware trace data as an intermediary between software safety checks and the actual circuit state. Trace points capture real signal values and operational data from critical circuits, providing measurable diagnostic information that bridges the gap between software evaluation logic and hardware reality, enabling both low cost and high diagnostic coverage
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces purely software-based safety monitoring with a hybrid approach that uses hardware trace infrastructure to capture actual circuit behavior. This substitution provides direct, measurable diagnostic data from the hardware level while keeping the evaluation logic in software, achieving both cost-effectiveness and comprehensive diagnostic coverage
3Reliability
If dedicated hardware safety resources are added to meet functional safety standards, then safety integrity level is improved, but system performance and resource availability are impacted
Solution Approach 1:
The patent configures existing hardware trace resources to serve both performance-critical functions and safety evaluation functions simultaneously. The same trace points and interconnects used for debugging are repurposed to capture safety-relevant data without adding dedicated safety hardware, thus improving safety integrity level while avoiding performance degradation
Solution Approach 2:
The system captures trace data selectively based on safety requirements rather than continuously monitoring all circuits. Trace collection is triggered only when safety evaluation is needed or when specific safety-critical events occur, reducing the resource burden on the system while maintaining adequate safety coverage
Data Source
AI summary
A system to evaluate functional safety in an integrated circuit. The system includes a first circuit to execute an operation to cause to system to perform a function, where the function associated with a specified safety integrity level. The system also includes second circuit to capture trace data at an interface to the first circuit or at internal signals without inhibiting performance of the function, where the trace data comprising information that is used to determine whether the system can perform the function with an indicated level of functional safety and transmit the trace data to a safety evaluation circuit.