Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms provide numerous representations and/or control of component interconnections in a digital design. For example, aspects of the invention provide a connection panel where connections can be presented in different modes. The different modes can run concurrently with each other or separately from each other. The different modes can also be manually or automatically selected to switch from one mode to another mode. For instance, the modes can be manually selected using an on-screen button or automatically selected by examining the location of the mouse pointer on the connection panel. Based on the different modes, component interconnections can be easily and efficiently handled and presented. Further, components can be automatically organized to minimize the number of crossing interconnects between them and/or maximize the amount of interconnection information presented.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms provide numerous representations and/or control of component interconnections in a digital design. For example, aspects of the invention provide a connection panel where connections can be presented in different modes. The different modes can run concurrently with each other or separately from each other. The different modes can also be manually or automatically selected to switch from one mode to another mode. For instance, the modes can be manually selected using an on-screen button or automatically selected by examining the location of the mouse pointer on the connection panel. Based on the different modes, component interconnections can be easily and efficiently handled and presented. Further, components can be automatically organized to minimize the number of crossing interconnects between them and/or maximize the amount of interconnection information presented.

Abstract: Techniques and mechanisms provide various representations and/or the ability to control component interconnections in an electronic design. For example, virtual representations, which may be combined with physical representations, of actual hardware connections between components of an electronic design are provided. A virtual port is generally mapped to a hidden physical port, which corresponds to an actual hardware port of a particular component. The virtual port may be mapped to multiple hidden physical ports or mapped to a single hidden physical port shared by another virtual port. The mapping may also take into account various constraints (e.g., functionalities supported by the components selected for connection; burst data transfers; prefetchable memory reads; etc.) to allow for efficient control and/or presentation of interconnection information. Based on the mappings, components can be automatically connected.

Abstract: Internal registers of a PLD are exposed for debugging using a JTAG port and a scan chain. The user of a PLD identifies registers at the source code level. These registers are automatically inserted in a scan chain. An EDA software tool provides a means of choosing a register from the electronic design. The EDA tool connects the selected register to the JTAG scan chain and passes information to the software about the location in the scan chain. The EDA tool provides for scanning of the chain under automatic or manual control. The selected nodes are extracted from the chain and displayed in a user-specified format. Registers in encrypted blocks are exposed. The vendor of the block decides which registers are of importance. Once selected, the vendor creates a “debugging” file which is delivered to the customer along with the encrypted block. The debugging file contains the names of the registers, their data type, and their symbolic values.