Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Pseudorandom keephot instructions to mitigate large load steps during hardware emulation

Abstract:

A pseudorandom logic circuit may be embedded as a hardware within an emulation system, which may generate pseudorandom keephot instructions. A masking logic may mask out portions in each pseudorandom keephot instruction, which may change state elements during execution. A cluster of emulation processors may execute masked pseudorandom keephot instructions to consume power when not executing mission instructions. The cluster of emulation processors may run keephot cycles, during which the cluster of emulation processors may execute the pseudorandom keephot instructions causing the cluster of emulation processors to continue consuming a roughly constant amount of power, either at a same or different voltage level, but supposed outputs of the pseudorandom keephot instructions may have no impact upon inputs and outputs generated during mission cycles.