Deriving hardware acceleration of decoding from a declarative protocol description

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016119218-A1
Application number	US-201414574137-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 17, 2014
Priority date	Oct 24, 2014
Publication date	Apr 28, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A test-and-measurement instrument is described. The test-and-measurement instrument can store a state machine. As the state machine is used to analyze a bit stream, breadcrumbs can be saved from states in a memory of the state machine. The breadcrumbs can then be used to analyze the operation of the state machine.

First claim

1 . A system, comprising:
a test-and-measurement instrument; a memory on the test-and-measurement instrument; a receiver on the test-and-measurement instrument operative to receive a regular expression and a bit stream; a state machine generator to generate a state machine from the regular expression; an analyzer operative to analyze the bit stream using the state machine; and a breadcrumb generator operative to generate and save in the memory a breadcrumb whenever a state in the state machine is entered.

2 . A system according to claim 1 , wherein the breadcrumb generator is operative to generate a breadcrumb including at least one of a type of state, a state ID, and a time.

3 . A system according to claim 1 , wherein the breadcrumb generator is operative to generate and save in the memory a breadcrumb when an error state is entered on an unexpected input, the breadcrumb including at least one of a type of state, a state ID, and a time.

4 . A system according to claim 1 , further comprising a state machine optimizer operative to optimize the state machine.

5 . A system according to claim 1 , further comprising a re-creator to recreate the operation of the state machine using the saved breadcrumbs.

6 . A method, comprising:
receiving a regular expression at a test-and-measurement instrument; generating a state machine from the regular expression; applying the state machine to a bit stream; and for at least one state in the state machine, saving a breadcrumb in a memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when the at least one state is entered.

7 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein saving a breadcrumb in a memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when the at least one state is entered includes saving a breadcrumb in the memory of the test-and-measurement instrument as each state in the state machine is entered.

8 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein saving a breadcrumb in a memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when the at least one state is entered includes saving the breadcrumb in the memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when the at least one state is entered, the breadcrumb including at least one of a type of state, a state ID, and a time.

9 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein saving a breadcrumb in a memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when the at least one state is entered includes saving an error breadcrumb in the memory of the test-and-measurement instrument when an error state is entered on an unexpected input, the breadcrumb including at least one of a type of state, a state ID, and a time.

10 . A method according to claim 6 , wherein generating a state machine from the regular expression includes optimizing the state machine.

11 . A method according to claim 6 , further comprising using the saved breadcrumbs to follow the application of the bit stream to the state machine.

Assignees

• Tektronix Inc

Inventors

• Tanous Edward F
• Rule Keith D
• Feist James

Classifications

• G11C29/56

  External testing equipment for static stores, e.g. automatic test equipment [ATE]; Interfaces therefor · CPC title

• G01R13/02

  for displaying measured electric variables in digital form · CPC title

• H04L43/50 Primary

  Testing arrangements · CPC title

• H04L1/0002 Primary

  by adapting the transmission rate · CPC title

• H04L43/04

  Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation · CPC title