A low-cost platform for the prototyping and characterization of digital circuit IPs

Muhammad E.S. Elrabaa*, Amran Al-Aghbari, Mohammad Al-Asli, Aiman El-Maleh, Abdelhafid Bouhraoua, Mohammad Alshayeb

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A novel low-cost platform for prototyping and characterizing the performance of digital circuit intellectual properties (IPs) has been developed. Compromised of several HW/SW components, it allows developers of circuit IPs to verify the functionality of any number of IPs on the same prototype chip and characterize their speeds without the need for any expensive test equipment special/custom IP-wrappers, or high-speed test board design. A complete prototype of the proposed platform has been realized and successfully used to test a prototype IC fabricated in a 150 nm technology with frequencies up to 2.1 GHz. Design conditions/constraints for portability to any fabrication process have been developed and verified using measurements from the fabricated IC.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalIntegration, the VLSI Journal
Volume54
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2016

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was funded by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) under development grant number MT-4-14/2010 . Authors also acknowledge facilities support by King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals .

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • ASICs
  • Circuit intellectual properties
  • Systems-on-Chip (SOCs)
  • Test and characterization
  • Test processors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software
  • Hardware and Architecture
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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