| Due to their ease of programming and prototyping, reconfigurability, and declining cost, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) are being integrated into electronic assemblies at an ever-increasing rate. As FPGAs become more common, the chance for a failure due to malfunctioning Configurable Logic Blocks (CLBs), the internal reconfigurable building blocks that along with connections and switch matrices make up the FPGA, increases proportionately. While certainly it is feasible to replace a defective FPGA chip, or an entire assembly physically, there are distantly located or mission critical devices that would benefit from the ability to diagnose and repair their embedded FPGAs in a timely manner via a wired connection such as a telephone modem or the Internet, or through a wireless transmission for very distant locations. As a larger number of intelligent appliances are connected to the Internet, and the ability to communicate with the wired world is already included, the additional cost of building remote FPGA diagnosis and repair into more common applications such as alarm systems or vending machines may become worthwhile, especially when reduced costs of not having to dispatch emergency repair personnel, and increased profits of reduced system downtime are considered. This paper proposes and simulates an integrated solution for remote diagnosis and repair through reconfiguration of FPGAs embedded within other assemblies.; In order to perform remote diagnosis and reconfiguration, it is necessary to have a way to determine that the FPGA is behaving incorrectly, a method to test the FPGA in-circuit that will report a defective block correctly, some scheme for performing reconfiguration, a transmission method and channel, and finally a test to determine if the FPGA is now performing to specifications. Although individually these topics have been explored to various extents in the literature, and several methods have been proposed for self testing, as well as the reconfiguration around an existing faulty CLB, the combination of these ideas into a cohesive solution is the unique focus of this research. |
