Method to dynamically change microprocessor test software to reflect different silicon revision levels

摘要

A method and apparatus for testing one of a plurality of revisions of a microprocessor by creating an abstract base class which specifies the names of a plurality of tests or attributes, creating a derived class for each revision and defining each of the tests or attributes appropriately for each of the derived classes, instantiating an object from one of the derived classes and executing the tests by reference to the object. A computer system is configured to be coupled to a microprocessor which may be any one of a plurality of revisions. Upon execution of a debug/test application on the computer system, the revision of the microprocessor is determined and the object is instantiated from the derived class corresponding to the revision. The object is thereby dynamically bound to the tests defined for the derived class corresponding to the revision and references to each test via the object automatically execute the test code specific to the revision of the microprocessor. The microprocessor may be replaced with a second microprocessor having a second revision. A second object is instantiated from the derived class corresponding to the second revision and the tests are executed via reference to the second object, thereby automatically executing the test code specific to the second revision.