SYSTEM FOR TESTING REAL AND SIMULATED VERSIONS OF AN INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

摘要

A system (10) for testing both simulated and real versions of an integrated circuit (IC) (16) includes an IC simulator (40), a simulator manager (42), an IC tester (14), and a tester manager (46). The IC simulator (40) simulates response of the IC (16) to a set of simulated IC input signals by producing a set of simulated IC output signals. The simulator manager (42), programmed by a user-supplied test bench (20) file, provides the simulated IC input signals to the simulator (40) during the simulation. During the simulation, the simulator manager (42) also generates a set of waveform data sequences, each representing periodically sampled values of a corresponding one of the simulated IC input and output signals. The IC tester (14) includes a separate channel (24) corresponding to each real IC input and output signal. The tester manager (46) converts the waveform data sequence corresponding to each simulated IC input and output signal to a separate set of instructions provided as input to a corresponding one of the IC tester channels (24). When testing the real IC (16), each IC tester channel (24) corresponding to a real IC input signal responds to its input instructions by generating and supplying to the IC (16) an input signal having the sequence of values indicated by the waveform data sequence representing the corresponding simulated IC input signal. Each IC tester channel (24) corresponding to an IC output signal responds to its input instructions by periodically sampling the corresponding IC output signal to determine whether the IC output signal has the sequence of values indicated by the waveform data sequence representing the corresponding simulated IC output signal.