A method of updating firmware in a chip in a stable and effective manner receives firmware outputted by a controller. The received firmware is burned into the chip. A voltage level of a controlling signal outputted by a controlling pin of the chip is latched to a certain level based on a latching signal at a first voltage level outputted by the controller. The storage medium is refreshed for making the burned firmware effective based on refresh instruction outputted by the controller. The latching signal at a second voltage level for unlatching the voltage level of the controlling signal is outputted by the controller if operations of the chip are stable. An updating operation of the chip by the method does not interrupt other operations being executed by the chip. A firmware updating apparatus and a computer readable storage medium applying the method are also disclosed.

A method of updating firmware in a chip in a stable and effective manner receives firmware outputted by a controller. The received firmware is burned into the chip. A voltage level of a controlling signal outputted by a controlling pin of the chip is latched to a certain level based on a latching signal at a first voltage level outputted by the controller. The storage medium is refreshed for making the burned firmware effective based on refresh instruction outputted by the controller. The latching signal at a second voltage level for unlatching the voltage level of the controlling signal is outputted by the controller if operations of the chip are stable. An updating operation of the chip by the method does not interrupt other operations being executed by the chip. A firmware updating apparatus and a computer readable storage medium applying the method are also disclosed.

A multi-bit flip-flop includes a first flip-flop having a first output driver connected to a first output pin and arranged on a first row, a second flip-flop including a second output driver electrically connected to a second output pin and arranged on a second row, and an internal hold buffer connected to the first output driver on the first row and the second flip-flop on the second row.

An integrated circuit (IC) can include a plurality of circuit blocks, wherein each circuit block includes design for testability (DFT) circuitry. The DFT circuitry can include a scan interface, wherein each scan interface is uniform with the scan interface of each other circuit block of the plurality of circuit blocks, an embedded deterministic test circuit coupled to the scan interface, wherein the embedded deterministic test circuit couples to circuitry under test, and a scan response analyzer coupled to the scan interface. The scan response analyzer is configured to operate in a selected scan response capture mode selected from a plurality of scan response capture modes. The IC can include a global scan router connected to the scan interfaces of the plurality of circuit blocks. The global scan router is configured to activate a subset of the plurality of circuit blocks in parallel for a scan test.

A circuit for implementing a scan chain in programmable resources of an integrated circuit is described. The circuit comprises a programmable element configured to receive an input signal and generate an output signal based upon the input signal; a selection circuit configured to receive the output signal generated by the programmable element at a first input and to receive a scan chain input signal at a second input, wherein the selection circuit generates a selected output signal in response to a selection circuit control signal; and a register configured to receive the selected output signal of the selection circuit.

The signal toggling detection and correction circuit includes a flip-flop, a checker circuit, and a fault monitoring circuit that includes a restoration circuit. Based on faults such as soft errors and unintended bit toggles in the flip-flop, a flop output signal toggles. A set of checker signals outputted by the checker circuit may toggle based on toggling of the flop output signal and a restoration signal of the restoration circuit. Based on the toggling of at least one checker signal, the fault monitoring circuit determines whether the flip-flop or the checker circuit is faulty. When the checker circuit is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of at least one checker signal. When the flip-flop is faulty, the fault monitoring circuit corrects the toggling of one of the toggled flop output signal or the restoration signal and further corrects the toggled checker signal.

An Integrated Circuit (IC) includes a storage element and control circuitry. The control circuitry is configured to select, responsively to a scan-enable control, between a functional-data input and a scan-data input to serve as an input to the storage element, to selectively disable toggling of an output of the storage element, responsively to a clock-enable control, by gating a clock signal provided to the storage element, and, while the clock-enable control indicates that the output of the storage element is to be disabled from toggling, to select the input of the storage element to be the scan-data input.

A scan chain architecture with lowered power consumption comprises a multiplexer selecting between a functional input and a test input. The output of the multiplexer is coupled to a low threshold voltage latch and, in test mode, to a standard threshold voltage latch. The low threshold voltage latch and standard threshold voltage latch are configured to store data when a clock input falls, using a master latch functional clock M_F_CLK, master latch test clock M_T_CLK, slave latch functional clock S_F_CLK, and slave latch test clock S_T_CLK. The slave latch has lower power consumption than the master latch.

An apparatus is provided which comprises: a first flip-flop (FF) cell with a data path multiplexed with a scan-data path, wherein the scan-data path is independent of a min-delay buffer, wherein the first FF cell has a memory element formed of at least two inverting cells, wherein the two inverting cells are coupled together via a common node; and a second FF cell with a data path multiplexed with a scan-data path, wherein the scan-data path of the second FF cell is independent of a min-delay buffer, and wherein the scan-data path of the second FF cell is coupled to the common node of the first FF cell.

In some examples, a circuit includes a custom control data register (CCDR) circuit having a scan path. The CCDR circuit includes a shift register and an update register. The shift register is configured to receive scan data from a scan data input (CDR_SCAN_IN) on a first clock edge responsive to a scan enable signal (CDR_SCAN_EN) being enabled. The update register is configured to receive data from the shift register on a second clock edge after the first clock edge when the scan enable (CDR_SCAN_EN) is enabled. The update register data is asserted as a scan data output (CDR_SCAN_OUT). The second scan path includes the scan data input, the shift register, the update register, and the scan data output.