DIGITAL CIRCUIT USING MEMORY FOR MONITORING SIGNALS FOR OCCURRENCES OF PREDEFINED BREAKPOINT CONDITIONS

摘要

A BREAKPOINT UNIT CONTAINS A MEMORY CIRCUIT WHICH MONITORS DIGITAL SIGNALS FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF ANY OF A PLURALITY OF PREDETERMINED CONDITIONS. THE MEMORY CIRCUIT INCLUDES AN ARRAY OF MEMORY CELLS (34) (EACH CELL STORING DATA DETERMINING A VALUE OF A BREAKPOINT CONDITION OF INTEREST), AND SELECTED ONES OF THE CELLS CAN BE READ IN RESPONSE TO VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF THE SIGNAL BITS. IN SOME EMBODIMENTS, THE ARRAY INCLUDES 2N CELLS AND DATA STORED IN EACH CELL IS READABLE IN RESPONSE TO N BINARY SIGNAL BITS WHICH ARE TREATED AS AN N-BIT ADDRESS SIGNAL. THE MEMORY CIRCUIT OUTPUTS (21) THE ACCESSED DATA VALUE FROM ONE MEMORY CELL (34), WHICH WOULD BE USED AS A BREAKPOINT SIGNAL THAT HALTS OR INITIATES OPERATION OF THE CIRCUIT ORIGINATING THE SIGNALS BEING MONITORED. FIGURE 6