Different Approaches to Digital System Debugging

In digital system design, it is necessary to check the infallibility of the design and to eliminate errors, if any. This process is called design debugging. It requires a debugging object, debugging modes for digital system functioning, a set of tests representing all modes of digital system functioning, the opportunity to define the correctness of output and internal variables of the debugging object and possibilities to correct the design. Design debugging can be done on a hardware prototype or computer model of a digital system. Intermediate approaches include prototyping only non-typical electronic blocks and connecting them with a typical hardware core or adding special hardware blocks to the computer model of a digital system. All abovementioned components of the debugging process are discussed for four cases of debug objects representing digital system. Fundamental possibility, convenience, cost and efficiency are considered. It is shown that the most universal and convenient approach is to use the computer model of a digital system design as a debug object. This approach could be used for any structure and architecture of a digital system. Nevertheless, other approaches are also used.