SoC Peripheral Access Configuration and Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems on a chip face challenges in managing dynamic access restrictions to peripherals and their resources efficiently, requiring a flexible and consistent configuration that simplifies programming and debugging while ensuring reliability and security.
Innovation Solution
A system on a chip with multiple master and slave resources, featuring an interconnection circuit and configuration registers, where configuration information is used to define access rights, with verification modules ensuring authorized access and decentralized verification to maintain homogeneity and ease of implementation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If access restrictions to peripherals and their resources are made dynamic and flexible to accommodate various applications and users, then adaptability and versatility are improved, but device complexity and difficulty of management increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments access management into two distinct phases: a configuration phase where access rights are defined and stored in configuration registers, and an operational phase where pre-defined access rules are automatically enforced. This segmentation allows flexible configuration while simplifying operational management, as the complex access control logic is established once during configuration rather than being managed dynamically during operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-defining all access restrictions and permissions during the configuration phase before the system enters operational mode. The configuration controller pre-configures configuration registers with access rights for different master-slave pairs, and verification modules use these pre-established rules to automatically enforce access control without requiring complex real-time decision-making, thereby reducing operational complexity while maintaining flexibility.
2Reliability
If configuration management of access rights is centralized to ensure consistency, then reliability is improved, but device complexity and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The verification system is segmented into multiple distributed verification modules, each associated with specific slave resources. Each verification module independently checks access requests to its associated slave resources using configuration information from configuration registers. This segmentation distributes the verification workload across multiple modules rather than requiring a single centralized verification unit, reducing processing overhead while maintaining configuration consistency through shared access to the configuration registers.
3Reliability
If detailed configuration information is stored for each master-slave pair to ensure precise access control, then security is improved, but loss of information and memory requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The configuration registers serve multiple functions: they store access rights for master-slave pairs, contain configuration information used by verification modules, and provide a reference for the configuration controller. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate storage structures for different types of access control data, optimizing memory usage while maintaining comprehensive access control information for precise security enforcement.
Data Source
AI summary
System on a chip, comprising several master pieces of equipment, several slave resources, an interconnection circuit coupled between the master pieces of equipment and the slave resources and capable of routing transactions between master pieces of equipment and slave resources. A first particular slave resource cooperates with an element of the system on a chip, for example a clock signal generator, and the element has the same access rights as those of the corresponding first particular slave resource.