Processing system hardware diagnostics

摘要

A method for diagnosing hardware failures in a data processing system includes configuring a portion of a programmable logic device (30) to create a state machine (38). The state machine tests a communication bus (32) and a plurality of component devices (22,26,28) connected by the communication bus and identifies the test failures. The state machine communicates the test information to external test equipment. The communication bus is used in the operation of the data processing system and the testing includes tests at full clock speed of the data processing system.